


(Witness Me) Now That I Am Now Wild

by t0bemadeofglass



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Accidental Knotting, Additional Side Pairings, Agreed Upon Non-Con Elements, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha/Omega, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Powers, BDSM elements, Barebacking, Bathroom Sex, Begging, Bodily Fluids, Contracted Companionship, Controlling Behavior, Crying, Dirty Talk, Dom/sub Undertones, Domineering Behavior, Drinking, Dub-Con Snuggling, Dubcon Kissing, Dubcon Speech, Dubious Consent, Dubious Consent due to Alpha Beta Omega dynamics, Dubious Consent due to Sex Pollen, Exhibitionism, F/M, First Time, Forced Bonding, Forced Orgasm, Forcibly Removed Clothing, Forgetting Safeword, Gags, Intrusive Omega Thoughts, Knotting, Loss of Virginity, Manhandling, Mating Bites, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Mentioned child abandonment, Mentions of Violence, Mild Blood, Minor Violence, Mostly Safe Sane and Consensual, Oral Sex, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Overstimulation, Panic, Poor Alpha Behavior, Porn With Plot, Possessive Behavior, Possessive Kylo Ren, Possessive Sex, Power Dynamics, Power Imbalance, Praise Kink, Predator/Prey, Pretty Woman Vibes, Restricted Movements, Scarring, Semi-Public Sex, Sex Pollen, Sexy Dread, Size Difference, Size Kink, Spanking, Surprise Angst, Surprise Omega, Talk Legal to Me (lite), Teasing, Territorial Ben Solo, Unprotected Sex, Virgin Rey (Star Wars), Woman on Top, Work In Progress, alpha voice, delayed gratification, first heat, hands bound, loss of temper
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-17
Updated: 2020-08-02
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:54:18
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 17
Words: 41,528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24232399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/t0bemadeofglass/pseuds/t0bemadeofglass
Summary: "What sort of self respecting Beta let an Alpha pay her to her pretend to be an Omega so he could get his rocks off?For fifty-thousand dollars, already deposited in her bank account as of moments before she’d been carted away by Kylo Ren's personal driver, Rey supposed it was her."--In which Rey allows herself to be whisked away for a weekend to be hunted, and thoroughly debauched, by Kylo Ren. Everything seems cut and dried, a quick weekend romp guaranteed to pay off her debt and set her up for the foreseeable future, until it's not.
Relationships: Kylo Ren/Rey, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 582
Kudos: 1829





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [PoetHrotsvitha](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PoetHrotsvitha/gifts), [selinakyle47](https://archiveofourown.org/users/selinakyle47/gifts), [princessofreylo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/princessofreylo/gifts).



> Ooookay, so. I know, _I know_ I have a thousand million other wips and stories that I should be focusing on . . . but y'all TROS really did a number on me. I'm trying to work my way back into this whole writing thing, and this idea hasn't stopped eating away at my brain, so I figured what the hell we'll just get on with it. Why delay the inevitable? 
> 
> HUGE HUGE HUGE Shout out to Heather for working through this idea with me, to PoetHrotsvitha for story building and keeping me sane while writing, and selinakyle47 for enduring my whining and giving it a look over <3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Please be aware of the following warnings:** there is playacting non-con and dub-con within this story. Kylo propositions Rey to let him hunt her down, and fuck her, in a forest on his property. She agrees to it, there are rules in place to ensure that she is not hurt, but it will involve a certain amount of her fighting back, which is where the dub con comes in. If this is triggering to you, I ask you take care of your mental health and don't read something that is going to upset you. I will do my best to post warnings at the end of the chapters, with a note stating to read below if there is content that could, possibly, be triggering or upsetting. This fic is purely wish fulfillment, and I'm just kinda running with my id at the moment because LOL what a fucking time to be alive rn.
> 
> See the notes at the bottom for potential spoilers/chapter warnings.

There was a first time for everything. For Rey, being driven miles away from any sort of civilization, propositioned by arguably the most handsome Alpha she’d ever laid eyes on, then being shoved out into the crisp air to try and make her way out of the forest and to safety was . . . certainly a first she’d remember. Especially since she’d agreed to it, signed her name to the NDA that’d been offered to her, nodded after a moment’s thought to the nitty gritty that’d been suggested to her. 

She was losing her mind, that was the only answer for it. _What sort of self respecting Beta let an Alpha pay her to her pretend to be an Omega so he could get his rocks off?_

For fifty thousand dollars, already deposited in her bank account as of moments before she’d been carted away by his personal driver, she supposed it was her. 

As she stood and turned, struggling to maintain direction, she tried to recall the finite rules that had been offered, typed out on thick cardstock for her to review, as if her host, her benefactor for the weekend, had been offering her his CV. 

As though they hadn’t found one another though an online posting, as though there wasn’t a promise of two additional payments written into the clause of the NDA. As though she hadn’t been days away from eviction, and this weekend, and all that it promised . . . well, it frankly felt too good to be true, even if she was being paid for sex.

  
  
  


_“If you get hurt, unintentionally or otherwise, this ends. You’ll keep the down payment once this is all over with, of course.” Kylo Ren, in the flesh, didn’t fit the description she’d built of him in her head. Whereas she’d been envisioning a man in his late forties, possibly graying, looking for arm candy to flaunt in an attempt to make himself feel better, this man was . . . well. Huge felt an apt word. Handsome, in a way that took her by surprise, and only became more apparent as he spoke, reading off the rules as though they were going over class expectations._

_She struggled to pay attention, eyes not entirely focused as he read the sheet aloud to her._

_“Safe word out and you can keep the money for trying, and I’ll have you sent home the very next day.”_

_“I want to_ hunt _you, Rey, not hurt you, so there’s no reason to be afraid. Not really. I do expect some participation on your end.”_

_“You’re on birth control you said?_ Good _.”_

  
  
  


She shivered. _Hunt_. The word was enough to make her shiver, her heart pounding and skin prickling with gooseflesh. Hunt her, take her like an Alpha of old, like the stories they’d heard about in high school sex ed detailing the evolution of “how things were done” for Alphas and Omegas. Why he’d gone for her scrawny, brunette, Beta-self was a puzzle she didn’t want to look too deeply at, afraid of what it might uncover. A deranged parent, maybe, or ex-girlfriend who’d gotten away and made him into the man that he was? 

‘Hopefully not someone that he’d killed,’ a dark voice inside of her head muttered. 

  
  
  


_“Is there anything you’d like to tell me about yourself before we begin?” He leaned back in his seat, thick fingers wrapped around a highball of whiskey, something that smelled as expensive as the furnishings of the study they were conducting this meeting in. She’d declined wine, herself, opting for water. Safer._

_So there was no excuse for her loose lips when she muttered: “Ah. Yeah. I’m a virgin.”_

_She heard him go still before she could look at him, barely resisting chewing on the inside of her cheek in anticipation of being thrown out, or chastised for withholding the information until it was too late. Her gaze leveled on one of the far off bookshelves without really seeing it, the sound of the blood rushing through her ears almost loud enough to keep her from hearing his short, soft exhale of surprise._

_“You are?”_

_“Mhm.” She gave a curt nod._

_A pause. Her eyes began to water, certain that if she looked over at him she’d see exactly how angry her withholding that information had made him._

_Or worse even than that, she’d see pity bleeding back at her._

_“And you’re sure you want to do this, still?”_

_She barely breathed. “Mhm.”_

_He let out a soft laugh that made her stomach go all funny, tight and loose at the same time, her hands nearly trembling with the effort of keeping them perched on her knees. “Thank you for letting me know. I’ll double my first offer. I insist.”_

  
  
  


_Balls_ , she was running out of time as lost as she was in her head. Some hunt this was going to be if she didn’t get her head back into the game. With a groan of frustration, Rey took off in the direction that seemed clearest, a backpack with water, a couple of small packs of high-energy snacks, and blanket, bouncing with her every step as she hiked her way through the gathering dark, trying to stick with the makeshift path she’d discovered. Maybe that would be best, at least for the beginning. She’d already been out here for an hour, if the newly provided watch on her wrist was any indication, which meant she had exactly thirty more minutes before Kylo was due to come after her. He’d wanted her good and lost, dropped smack dab in the middle of the extensive forest that’d grown on his property, before he began to track her down. Before he tried to claim her as his own.

Fuck, why was that idea enough to make her want to stay visible, easily discovered? Were dark eyes and great hair, and shoulders broad enough to sink her fingertips into, enough to make her lose her mind? 

Maybe. 

  
  
  


_“Oh, and another thing, Rey?”_

_She’d looked up at the man in front of her, having nearly gone cross eyed from staring at the rules in her hands, not wanting to seem impertinent by staring at him instead. Now she couldn’t help it. His eyes practically glowed amber in the light of the fireplace, which brought out the deep, chocolate of his hair. The hunt hadn’t even began, and already she felt pinned. Trapped in place._

_“Yes?”_

_“My grandfather built this place to get away from the world as he knew it, and made sure to buy every acre he could afford to keep others from encroaching.” Kylo’s full lips curled into a feral grin, and Rey’s toes curled in her running shoes. “So there’s no need to worry about someone hearing you scream.”_

  
  
  


She swore she could feel the time change just seconds from when Kylo’s hunt was due to begin. Indeed, her eyes zeroed in on her watch just in time to see her last precious seconds of freedom tick down to zero, the realization enough to force her legs to move again, pumping harder than she could remember in her life. She’d run track through school to try and get at least noticed for scholarships, but she’d never had a race like this. She felt her knees wobble, going weak as she heard a twig snap just behind her. She whipped around and found herself staring back at an equally horrified doe, which let out the briefest huff of distaste before it cantered off into the evening. 

There was no way he could’ve caught up with her as quickly as that, she chided herself, ignoring the way her skin prickled at the thought of him catching her. Of him _having her_ in that way. She wouldn’t be able to take his knot, not without seriously hurting herself, and there’d been a clause in the rules promising that he wouldn’t abuse her in such a way. As if the money hadn’t been reason enough to participate; at least he was . . . well, he wasn’t a sadist. She couldn’t speak to his character much more than that. 

Was it just her or was it getting harder to run? She turned sharply to the left, her lungs heaving as she struggled to zig-zag her way through the foliage, hardly enough light provided by the moon to illuminate where she was stepping. Without a phone, and without trusting another source of light to not give her away, she supposed she’d have to make do with what had been provided. 

An owl hooted, and in the distance she heard a clamor of birds, as though they’d been uprooted from their spot. As though something . . . something was coming. It couldn’t have been more than five-hundred or so feet from her. That was entirely too close. Her palms grew sweaty, and she wiped them hastily on her shorts as she considered the distance between herself and the commotion. 

Did she dare run? 

Or should she wait and hide? 

Fuck it, she didn’t agree to be caught so easily. 

She took off, determination making her every stride further, helping her to move faster, or at least she thought so. Even if the world felt like melting molasses around her, even as she struggled to keep from tripping every other step of the way, she wouldn’t be caught so easily. She couldn’t be. 

She also, apparently, couldn’t be silent for the life of her. It wasn’t long before she heard the sound of hard, additional footsteps, of labored panting, and she knew that this was a race she couldn’t win. Not just yet. 

Not without creative thinking. 

Breathing deep in spite of lungs that felt ready to pop, she veered off to the right, straight into a grouping of bushes just tall enough to cover her entirely if she crouched down. Bluecones weren’t dangerous, thank goodness, so long as you weren’t an Omega with an overdue heat. 

She wedged herself in amongst them, hardly able to breathe for fear of being found, as she heard heavy footsteps growing closer. The backpack she’d removed from her shoulders, shoving it between two other bushes so it wouldn’t stick out and give her away, and waited. 

It wasn’t long before Kylo Ren came hurtling into the open, his hair tousled, bare-chested and fuck did he look good, miles of built muscle and sinew, thick arms that she knew would hold her down like she was little more than a trembling leaf beneath him. He was covered in perspiration, shining in the moonlight like her own personal beacon of lust, and it was all she could do to keep from going willingly to him. 

Rey’s breath caught in her chest when he turned around, and for a moment, she thought he was staring right above where she had hidden herself. Stifling a yip of horror, she closed her eyes, willing her ears to hear more than the sound of her battledrum heart, willing her breathing to slow down as she took lungfuls of fresh air, the bluecones sweet as they filled her nostrils. She’d never been this close to them before.

_Alpha is nearby,_ a voice murmured in her head, new, yet as familiar as a childhood friend. _Alpha is looking for you. Go to him. Alpha is safe. Alpha will take you—._

She heard the same heavy footsteps as Kylo stepped nearer, and now Rey barely trusted herself to breathe. This was it. This was the last time; the game would be over before it’d even started, and how fair was that? 

She heard the rustling of his feet on the soft grass stop. Heard his soft hum, as though of surprise. “So that’s where you are,” she heard him murmur, squeezing her eyes tighter, prepared to feel the grip of his hand on her shoulder, or under her arms, lifting her up. She felt her toes curl, her breath catch in her throat. 

She could have sobbed—whether in disappointment, or relief—when she heard him take off again, his feet pounding into the earth as though he hoped to crack it open. She eased open her eyes into slits to watch him run deeper into the forest, off the beaten path. He must’ve heard something else, must not have seen her at all or else he wouldn’t have let her go—. 

So what was it that he’d seen? The bluecones, maybe? She knew the flowers to be relatively rare, even in Alpha/Omega curated gardens, where their effects could be most advantageous. Didn’t he know the contents of his own land? Was this why he’d opted to hire out a Beta for her particular role, rather than an Omega who might be otherwise affected? 

Rey shook her head, scowling, and watching the small beads of pollen drizzle down around her. She didn’t have time to consider what he’d meant. She needed to get moving, needed to make her way in the direction opposite where she’d seen him exit, if she was going to win this little game of theirs. 

  
It wasn’t until she got up, knees creaking with displeasure at her use, that she realized she’d soaked through the cotton of her panties and the fabric of her jeans. _What the fuck was going on?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Spoilers for Chapter/Content Warnings:**  
>  Mentions of being paid for sex  
> There are rules/safewords in place to ensure that Rey is not physically hurt, but it is mentioned that what happens may lead to the use of them.  
> Mentions of running/fighting back against Alpha/Kylo Ren.  
> Mentions of being "hunted."  
> Mentions of virginity kink/being compensated extra for virginity.  
> Mentions of screaming without anyone being able to hear/without being rescued.  
> Hinted sex pollen/unexpected Omega-related tendencies for a character who is described as a Beta.
> 
> Please let me know if I have missed anything/need to add further tags. Thank you so much for reading!


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy crow, guys. You completely blew me away with the response to this! Thank you so much, from the very bottom of my heart! I am floored and honored and beyond grateful for your comments, kudos, subscriptions, and for reading at all.  
> I erased the original chapter count idea because . . . well this is taking on a life of its own and it's not going to be the anticipated three-parter. Oh no. So strap in, friends. It's gonna be a ride.  
> Shout out to PoetHrotsvitha for giving this a quick once over and reassuring me it didn't suck, and also to post it today.
> 
>  **As ever, check the chapter notes at the end for spoilers/content warnings.**  
>  Thank you again!

She couldn't stop the way her mind raced as she looked down at the mess she'd made of herself, her cheeks flaming even if there was no one to see her but herself. She felt sticky, with heat, with her arousal, with the weight of her next moves weighing on her shoulders. With a huff of disbelief, she shimmied her pants off, grateful for the chilly air and freedom from the tightness of her clothes, and just as eager to leave anything that could be scented easily behind.

All the while her mind whirled as she balled the fabric up in her hands. There was no saying how long he'd chase that path, or whatever had taken her attention, which didn't leave much time for her to consider—no. There was nothing to consider. It was just a biological reaction to the game they were playing, right? That made sense; she was clearly getting into the role, perhaps a little too much, but nothing serious. Nothing like a real heat, she was sure. That wasn't possible. 

She itched her arms, feeling pinpricks of sensation, like the first warning pressure of Rose's cat’s claws when she tried upending him from her lap after he’d just settled in. Just the chilly night air starting to creep up on her, she thought. Nothing to be worried about. Nothing actually going on.

  
  
  


_“You're a Beta, of course?” He'd asked as she’d taken the glass of water from his assistant with a grateful smile, hardly having done more than wet her tongue before fighting a cough as water went down the wrong tube._

_Fuck, he jumped right into it. An Alpha’s Alpha. Of course he was. “Ah. Yes. Can I ask why that matters?”_

_“I want to be in some semblance of control of myself, if only just. Contrary to popular belief, we Alphas don't relish losing control of ourselves just as much as Omegas don't.” The gaze he fixed her was pointed enough to make her squirm. “You’ve no idea how fortunate you are. I want to lose myself to the adrenaline, to the thrill of the chase and conquering, but I won't put someone biologically built to be a slave to their desires in such a position, too.”_

_How progressive. She struggled not to blanch into her water. “I see.”_

_“But as you're a Beta, this won't be a problem.”_

_“And your knot isn't going to be a problem when your blood is high and you feel like you caught an Omega? Your rut won't start as soon as you—if you catch me?” She felt her ears burn, watching as his lips spread into a victorious grin._

_“_ When _I catch you,” he reiterated. “I'll have more control than you think. If you're not an Omega, you've no need to fear me knotting you. I'm not that cruel.”_

  
  
  


Wetting her lips, she watched the space he’d disappeared into for a moment, before high-tailing it in the opposite direction, trying her best to keep her footsteps light as she eased her way through the forest. Aside from her brief stint at collegiate level track and field, Rey’d never had a whole lot of time or energy for hiking, or cross-country exploring. After her typical 18-hour day of school, work, and studying, collapsing into bed at the first given opportunity was the only thing she’d ever had on her mind. There was always more to do, extra tutoring classes she could teach or another shift to pick up at the shop, or office hours she needed to visit, or labs to run. Sure she’d run at the gym when she’d needed a stress release, but aside from that, time was another commodity she never seemed to have enough of. 

It livened her steps a little to know that she was advancing, both figuratively and literally, towards not having to worry about that any more. So long as she could last the night, she’d be fine. She looked up, struggling to see the moon through the thick overhead of trees, wishing for a little less light for him to see her by. By her watch’s count, she had several hours until sun up. 

  
  
  


_“What happens if I make it to the edge of the property by morning?” she’d asked after he’d laid out their plot: her head start, his hunt, her attempted escape. The edge of the forest had been the breaking point. So long as she was outside of the forest line, she was safe. “Before you can, ah, get me.”_

_His expression morphed for the briefest of moments, genuine surprise lighting up his face, before being replaced by a bemused grin. “Do you really think you can outrun me?”_

_She felt her chin lift, if only by a centimeter. “I think I’m clever enough to at least keep you guessing. It might not be about outrunning you, not entirely.”_

_It was all Rey could do to keep from shivering at the heated look he leveled at her, the way his tongue darted out to wet his bottom lip, how his fingers fisted where he’d come to rest them on his knees, before he relaxed again. Pleasure bit at her spine, making her sit up straighter._

_“If you can stay away from me all evening, I suppose we’ll try again the next night to make sure it wasn’t a fluke. I’ll compensate you for your time, of course. But Rey, I have to warn you: I don’t like to lose.”_

How very Alpha. _She allowed herself a grin. “Neither do I.”_

  
  
  


There was a thicket some twenty minutes later that she allowed herself to rest in, crouching low and panting, wiping the quickly accumulating sweat from her brow. Fuck, she was more out of shape than she’d thought if this was enough to get her sweating and worked up like this. With a groan, she tugged the back of her shirt up, allowing the small breeze to play across her soaked skin, cooling her down at least a little. It was a godsend, truly sent by the angels to help fend off what was turning into an unseasonably warm evening. She didn't remember the weather forecast having been for heat like this. Even without her pants, which she'd chucked as she ran to try and throw Kylo off the scent, it felt as though she were burning up. 

_Burning up._

Her mouth went dry as she looked down at herself, the flush that’d already started covering her skin, her shortness of breath, the arousal still running down her thighs even as she just crouched there. The absolute throbbing of her cunt as she considered what this could all mean, with what basic knowledge she had of Omega biology from her high school’s under-funded health class. 

Even if there was no way—no possibility--it was better to be safe than sorry. . . Right? Better to keep running, and keep moving, to avoid being caught? 

Because if she was—if, somehow, by some horrible twist of fate she hadn't presented as an Omega, and the bluecones had triggered an awakening within her—. She was fucked. Well, and truly, fucked. 

Or rather, she thought as she got back to her feet, tying her shirt in a knot so that it rested just below her breasts, she would be if she didn't keep running. 

  
  
  


Running without pants, but with shoes and socks, was another first for her, one that Rey didn’t particularly enjoy now that she could feel the slick dripping down her skin. More than once, in a fit of what she’d consider genius, she’d stop to reach a hand between her legs and coat her fingers in the thick, viscous substance, having to grit her teeth to keep her attention on the task at hand and _not_ touch herself, even as her body sang for it. No, rather with her slick-coated hand she’d reach out to mark a nearby tree, before turning to run in the opposite direction. If Kylo did end up tracking her down by scent, he’d be thrown off track, and she’d manage to get away. She could keep him away from her for that long, right? She’d already hidden once, there had to have been a pond or water somewhere for her to rest, keeping the scent off of her. 

As though reading her thoughts, she felt a couple drops of rain land on her exposed forearms, cooling, cleansing. Perfect. This ought to help, she hoped, as she slowed down and allowed herself a moment of peace. Of rest. 

So long as she could last the night she could excuse herself from the rest of the weekend. Surely he’d understand; being an Omega violated their verbal agreement. Even if she had to say goodbye to the rest of the money it’d at least give her a chance to go back home and try and figure all . . . all of this out. Maybe he’d let her keep it for her honesty. 

She actually laughed at that, the sound leaving her lips before she could help it. “Don’t get your hopes up,” she muttered. 

As she heard the crunching of leaves and snapping of twigs beneath feet, as she heard the sound of someone hurtling towards her, smelled what could only be _Alpha_ for the first real time mixed in with the now drizzling rain, and felt her knees nearly buckle underneath her, she wished she hadn’t said anything. Her blood ran cold as Kylo stopped in the clearing, gaze locked onto her, mouth parted as his chest heaved with his breathing. He looked half mad with wanting, nothing like the man she’d sat across from and heard him discuss safewords and safety and how he’d lose control . . . . 

What was her safeword, again? Fuck, _what was her safeword to make this all stop?_

She found herself backing up, brain blank, that same voice inside of her screaming to _go to him, go to Alpha, lay on your belly and present yourself_ —. For every step she took away from him, he took one closer, and the grin he leveled at her was enough to cause her cunt to spasm, arousal dripping down her thighs. She’d never been this turned on in her entire life, her body practically singing for Kylo now that he was so close, even while her mind screamed at her to run, to _fight_ , to do _something_. 

“Fuck,” she said, voice hoarse, hands scrambling at the straps of her backpack, holding it in front of her as though to keep him away. Her back hit a tree with a hollow _thud_.

His laugh went straight to her cunt, her clit throbbing with how wrecked he sounded. “That’s the point, Rey. _Fuck_.” He wet his lips, a predator preparing for his meal. “I told you I’d get you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Content Warnings/Mild Spoilers**  
>  Predatory Kylo/Predator and Prey vibes  
> Forgetting to Safeword out  
> Sexy dread  
> Character experiences her first heat


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What can I say, guys? I'm weak, and your comments and praise is keeping me very much alive when everything else is very much . . . not.  
> Huge shout out for the amazing/gorgeous/fantastic art from theriseofswolo [nsfw link](https://twitter.com/theriseofswolo/status/1262625705877258240?s=21) !! I'm floored, completely blown away that you liked this story enough to want to make art of it! It's quite literally perfect. 
> 
> **Mind the tags for this chapter, please. We're getting into dub-con territory. As ever, full list of content warnings/spoilers in the end notes below.** Please keep yourself safe and check 'em out if you believe this story might be triggering or harmful to your well-being.  
> Thank you, thank you, thank you, for all the love and support. You're all incredible.

It was stupid, probably one of the stupidest things she’d done that evening yet, but she threw her backpack at him and ran, turning on her heel before she even saw the pack collide with this chest, hoping it might at least slow him down while she hightailed it out of there. She cleared rocks, ragged roots, small shrubs, grateful that her strength hadn’t yet left her as she heard him come pounding after.

The chase was well and fully on. The rain picked up, pelting her newly bared skin, making the grass slippery enough so that after one particularly far leap Rey found herself toppling over, tucking her limbs close so she rolled rather than sprained an ankle. As she pulled herself back together, she wondered whether he’d honor the clause in their contract that stated he’d stop if she injured herself. That was before he’d scented her, however, and given way to the chase. Before she . . . well, before whatever was happening to her had happened. She’d watched the way his pupils dilated, how he turned nearly feral at the prospect of getting her. 

She scrambled behind the trunk of an enormous tree, pulling her knees up and turning to the side so that as Kylo ran past he wouldn’t see her hiding. For a heart-stopping moment, she thought he might keep on in the same direction until he was the length of the forest away from her. 

She wasn’t so lucky. 

She could’ve groaned in disbelief as he skidded to a stop maybe half a dozen feet from her, breathing deeply, nose turned up to the wind as he turned his head from one side, to the next, rain drizzling down his bare, well muscled back. She felt her cunt pulse as the thought of how easily he could hold her down, force her legs apart and easily seat himself within her. How her body might welcome it. 

He was close enough for her to hear his sharp inhale as the wind carried the scent of her arousal to him.  _ Fuck _ ! Before he could turn around to find her she scrambled to her feet, ditching her shoes and socks to instead run on bare feet. Maybe she’d attract less attention, make less noise that he could hear through the pelting rain. 

She heard his laugh, his cry of joy, before the sound of his footsteps approaching grew loud enough to hear over the din. Rey blinked back tears of frustration, of disbelief at her luck, at the fact that she was running at all when all she wanted to do was lay down and present herself so he could mount—. 

She actually yipped when her shirt hooked onto something, turning her head to see Kylo’s fist clutching where she’d tied the hem to coax the cool air against her skin. The fabric was superfluous and ever more dangerous as it allowed him to pull her closer. Thinking fast, she hinged at the waist and bowed low, wriggling free before he could do more than try and lash out to catch her again. His fingers slid off of slick skin, and she bolted into the night.

He  _ howled  _ at the sight of her running from him and she very nearly lost her footing, skin practically crawling as her body warred with her mind, desperate to go to him.  _ Alpha needs you, Alpha is upset, you are not supposed to run from him--show your belly, show your throat. Alpha needs--. _

"You can't run from me, Rey! You can't hide-- _Not when you're mine!"_

She snarled as she crossed under the open sky, a deluge of rain soaking her to the bone. This was what she got for wearing her nicer things, the fabric horribly itchy and tight against her skin, ruined from the weather’s turn. She’d thought, when she’d opted for the already nearly transparent white bra, that Kylo might appreciate the sight before he took her as he said he would, if he caught her. That he might even notice the thought she’d put into it. 

Still, stripped down to her skivvies, soaked and covered in mud, she was still burning alive. It was worse than the fever that’d nearly made her miss her sophomore year finals, when she’d nearly thrown up mid-Chemistry lab. Worse even than the sunburn she’d endured after spending a whole sun-up to sun-down on the beach with Finn and Rose and Poe, Rey not having thought twice about a second, or third, coating of sunblock as they’d spent the day swimming, sleeping, and snacking. 

No this burn came from inside of her, pulsing in a counterpoint to the beat of her heart, demanding her stop and pay attention, screaming that she stop and give in. It sang that this egregious error of her running away from Alpha be corrected as soon as bodily possible, because that was what she was meant for. 

_ Balls to that.  _

She had to be smarter, because she couldn’t be faster. Already she swore she could feel the way the earth shook as he hurtled after her, his legs longer, his pace punishing. How had he not smelled her scent, how had he not realized that she wasn’t—that she was in fact—. 

Rey lost her footing again, slamming into a tree as her feet skidded on the sodden ground. Her chest ached where it’d hit the tree, the air leaving her lungs in a great woosh. Only to then inflate once more in panic when she felt a pair of hands grab tight to her hips, firmly anchoring her in place between the oak in front, and the redwood of a man behind her. 

“Got you,” he purred, body pressed so close to hers that there was no hope of wriggling away. Even as she tried, body trembling with warring want and frustration, desperate to try and put some sort of distance between them, if only to keep from losing herself to the hormones, she knew it was no good. She whimpered as she felt his cock twitch where it came to rest against the seam of her ass. Fuck it all, he was  _ huge _ . 

She must’ve said something out loud to that same effect, as she felt his body shake with laughter, heard him murmur: “ _ Good to know you’re impressed, _ ” before she felt his fingers shred her panties, letting the tatters fall to the forest floor. Cool air lapped at her sex, overheated and desperate, drooling slick enough to make Kylo gasp as he reached between them and slipped two fingers inside of her with disgusting ease. Rey’s fingernails dug into the bark of the tree, her eyes screwed up as she struggled to find air enough to breathe, to get away even as he impaled her where she stood.

“All for me.  _ Say it _ ,” he ordered, lighting a spark in the pit of her stomach that demanded she follow suit. “Tell me this is for me.” 

“It is--for you, Alpha,” she found herself moaning, his fingers splitting her open, her head abuzz with the heady pleasure that came from obeying, the instant rush of adrenaline and pleasure making her brain go fuzzy.  _ That isn’t who I am,  _ she thought as she struggled to pull away, not realizing she was only fucking herself on his fingers while he kissed and sucked his way down her throat, teeth dangerously close to her mating gland. The one that, now, she felt more acutely than ever before.  _ Fuck _ , he didn’t even need to hold her in place, she was doing it all herself, spread wide on his fingers, eyes blurry with tears or rain as she begged for more. 

Her first orgasm blindsided her, catching at the base of her spine and making her go boneless, body trembling and knees nearly knocking together. It wasn’t enough, filled with just two of his fingers, the press of his body against hers only stoking the fire that was slowly eating at what little resistance she had left. She screamed as her hips bucked and her body betrayed her, no longer her own when he played her every nerve ending like a goddamn piano. 

Her forehead rested against the tree’s bark as he worked her slowly through her aftershocks, before his digits picked back up with renewed vigor, thick fingers scissoring her open. Preparing her for what else was to come. 

Her cunt seized at that thought and she felt him groan at the added pressure and tightness.

Her spine bowed, head rolling to the side to allow him better access to her throat. “ _ No _ —oh fuck— _ Kylo, please _ . Ng. Can’t. I can’t--.” She trembled, arms shaking as she attempted to push away from the tree, but only finding that it seated her further into his palm ( _ his whole palm  _ her lizard brain hissed), and allowed him to wrap an arm around her to hold her steady against him. How was it fair that he was so big, and she was so small, unable to do more than dig her toes in and try to find some semblance of footing when he crowded her like this?

“I know, Rey,” he assured her, sucking at the soft skin behind her ear as she shook all the harder. “I’ll give you what you need.” 

“Need—don’t understand.  _ Oh please, fuck. _ ” She shook her head, trying to clear the threads of want and duty and desire that’d made a tangled mess of her thoughts. 

She felt him grin against her skin as he withdrew his fingers, turned around to watch him press them past his lips, tasting her, closing his eyes as though to savor her. Rey had only just managed to turn around, to skirt around his bulk, when he reached out and gripped her chin, yanking her forward in a hard kiss. He shared the taste of her between them, salty and acidic, but sweet in its own way as Kylo pressed his tongue past her lips and tipped her face up until her neck ached and her heart ached with it. 

“Fuck, what did they give you to make you smell so  _ good _ ?” he asked when they parted, lips swollen and his eyes hooded, staring down at her mouth, before he met her gaze again. Her brain short circuited at the heat there. The earth could’ve tilted on a whole separate axis and she’d have stayed rooted to the spot in his arms, pinned in place under his gaze. “You’re delectable, Rey. And you’re all mine.” 

Yes,  _ yes  _ she was all his, wanted to be nothing but his, even as her subconscious screamed at her to  _ go _ , to escape and get away. He pulled away, but only just, wetting his bottom lip and waiting. Wanting to see if she’d run, Rey guessed. 

Who was she to let him down? 

With a bolt, she pushed herself from the tree, shoved her hands on his bare chest to barrel past him. She only managed to get half a foot or so before he wrapped his arms around her waist and threw her over his shoulder like she weighed less than nothing. Like it was the most natural of occurrences, expected, even. His hand came down on her ass, the swift crack of his enormous palm ( _ the very same _ , she noted, _ that’d fucked her so soundly and started this whole mess _ ) made her yip in surprise. 

“I caught you fair and square,” he reminded her with a growl as he hauled her through the forest, keeping her steady no matter how she squirmed. She was making an absolute mess of him as she leaked slick down his chest and abdomen (she’d be lying to herself if she thought she didn’t like that part.) “And now you’re all mine. Your cunt, your sweet lips, fuck. All of you belongs to me.” 

She whimpered, hardly able to hold herself up, the burning sensation beneath her skin intensifying with every word.  _ Would it really be so bad, being his?  _ What was the worst that could happen? She felt the world halt, then upend itself, as he set her down in a mostly dry clearing, the pair of them now sheltered by an enormous weeping willow, tucking them safely away from the rest of the world, a secret space for only the two of them alone. 

She laid back on her elbows, staring up at the breadth of his thighs, waist,, watching in equal parts horror and hunger as he undid his belt, and slid his slacks and boxers off his body in one swift motion. In any other circumstance she’d have happily noted the length of his cock, curved, dark red and weeping precome already, the knot at the base already thickening in anticipation. Now, she practically drooled in excitement, unable to move away even if she wanted to. 

Rey watched as Kylo wrapped his hand around his length, fisting himself slowly before he lowered himself between her legs, hiking them around his waist even as he leaned in to kiss her again. Why had she fought this, this inevitability? He was huge, he was  _ warm  _ in such a way that assuaged her own heat, he’d protect her. Fuck, he practically covered her prone form with his own as it was. His deft fingers undid the clasp of her bra and pulled it from her far more gently than she’d expected. Her nipples tightened in the evening air, far more sensitive than they had any right to be, and she whimpered when he pressed two slow, leisurely kisses to either of them, her back arching once more to meet him. 

How stupid was she to think she would ever be able to deny this, to deny him, when he felt so good? 

When he leveled his frame above her, balancing his bulk on one arm as he took himself in hand and lined up with her opening, she thought she saw the briefest moments of hesitation cross his face. Watching. Waiting, the apex predator from before retreating for the briefest of moments. 

She rocked her hips closer, taking just the tip of his cock inside of her, certain that her body was moving of its own accord without her permission, and that was all the encouragement he needed. With a grunt, he slid home, burying himself inch by inch within her, pain and pleasure bursting behind Rey’s eyes as she screamed—. 

And felt his teeth notch into her mating gland. With his neck so close to her own mouth, she found herself equally drawn to do the same, sucking and biting down on the gland until it popped beneath her teeth, and the world exploded into sensation. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Content Warnings/Mild Spoilers**  
>  General panic from being chased and not wanting to be caught  
> Intrusive Omega thoughts  
> Rey being grabbed/manhandled  
> Size difference frequently mentioned as well as panic and feeling trapped because of it  
> Struggling to get away but cannot break free  
> Dub-Con language (character saying 'no') and begging  
> Possessive language  
> Forcibly removed/ripped off clothes  
> Dub-con/forced orgasm  
> Loss of virginity  
>  **SPOILER**  
>  Biting Mating gland under dubious consent/heat circumstances.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello my friends, I present to you: the fuckening.  
>  **Please be aware that there is a significant amount of dub-con in this chapter. Lots of dirty talk and possessive tendencies and what have you and, it's basically all porn.** Sorry not sorry?  
> A million and one shout outs to everyone for reading, commenting, kudo-ing. Following me on Social Media. I really, _really_ appreciate all of your support; it means the world to me and keeps me writing.  
> As ever, **please see the notes below for a more in depth content warning list and mild spoilers**.  
> Thank you so very, very much for everything.

When Rey had been in second grade her class had taken a field trip to the local aquarium to learn about habitats and the creatures that inhabited the darkest corners of the ocean. It'd been her first foray into a normal afternoon, away from her foster father and the smoke that hung around his head like a cloud, away from the pitying eyes of those who saw her wandering by herself without a chaperone in sight.

While her classmates had oohed and ahhed over the penguins, dolphin show, and the tropical reef, Rey's heart had navigated her to the 360 aquatic tunnel the facility had only just finished funding, opening it up three weeks prior for the public to walk through. Rey had marveled at what it felt like to be suspended in air, surrounded by colors she couldn't begin to name, creatures who looked as though they'd been plucked from the recesses of her daydreams. 

The tunnel had led to a separate exhibit, unbeknownst to Rey, who'd traveled the length of the walkway until she couldn't go any further, stretched out and suspended in what seemed like open water, where the creatures were getting bigger. Longer. 

_ Hungrier _ . 

She'd turned around, certain that she'd be able to see her teacher and rejoin the rest of the class, to find that she'd fallen so far off the beaten path she couldn't even hear their voices in the distance. 

What she could hear was the heavy, heady, thudding of her heart echoing in her ears, as she stopped to come face to face with a shark whose midsection was thicker than her whole body. She'd watched its black eyes take her in, watched it swim back and forth, its gaze fixed on this odd, brightly colored little fish that didn't seem to be swimming away. 

Watched as it opened its mouth wide enough to swallow her whole without the need to chew, and showed her it's rows upon rows of fangs, as if to say “run chick-a-dee, while you still have the chance.” 

When Rey's teacher finally realized she was missing a pupil, and tracked Rey down to the shark tank, she paused in the frame of the exhibit, taking in the sight of the young girl, her nose pressed to the glass, quietly counting the teeth that would have, could have, ripped her apart.

  
  
  
  
  


For the briefest of moments it was as though she was floating, her body nowhere near planet Earth, her mind nothing but blissful sensation and peace. She opened her eyes slowly, mouth dry and tasting of blood and something sweet, like chocolate. Her fingertips sunk into the broad shoulders of the man above her, transcendent in the way the moon illuminated the copper in his eyes, and pleasure eked its way up her spine and his hips snapped against hers in growing speed.

“Kylo,” she gasped, nails finding the soft skin of his shoulders and digging in, not content until she could feel his heartbeat beneath her palms. “Jesus  _ Christ _ , Alpha, you're fucking ripping me in two.” 

_ In the best way _ , she meant to say, but his next thrust stole the air from her lungs, her cunt tightening around him even more. Drawing him further in so that there was no way he could leave her. That was what she wanted, wasn’t it?  _ Alpha will take care of you. Alpha will treat you like you’re precious and new and desired. Alpha is yours now—. _

He licked at her gland and her skin erupted into gooseflesh. Her body had never felt more alive, and more untethered, all at the same time, not caring that the ground beneath them was slick with rain, that there was a twig pressing hard against her lower back. There was a sound like a high pitched keening, and it wasn’t until Kylo brought his lips to hers, leaving burning kisses in his wake, that she realized it was coming from her. 

“That’s it,” he murmured, pulling away just far enough to let them breathe, his arms bracketed on either side of her head. She dug her heels in, rolling her hips in time to the rhythm he’d started, body aching to go faster even as he slowed down. Every other thrust the head of his cock would catch on something inside of her, stoking the fire in her belly that’d been there since she’d first seen him. She felt her face contort and her stomach drop as he pulled away. Rey was half tempted to chase after him, to claw at him to come back until she followed his gaze, and found herself staring at where their bodies had slotted together. Her eyes widened to see a slight bulge in her abdomen that moved in time with the shifting of his hips, horrified and enraptured all at once. Certainly he felt that huge, and he’d looked it—but she’d chalked that up to inexperience. To never having had someone before who cared about her enough to make it work with her ridiculous schedule. 

She heard Kylo swear, voice broken at the edges, as she brought a hand down between them, pressing her palm flat over the bulge of his cock within her, whimpering as his hips jerked harder at the additional pressure. 

He cupped the side of her face, bringing her attention back to him, and how utterly wrecked he looked. “You’re so fucking small, Rey, but you take me so well. You were fucking made to, weren’t you?” he asked, words rapturous. He pressed into her to the hilt once more, pulling her up and into his arms this time, seating her fully on his lap until she thought she could feel him in her throat.

“Perfect girl,” he nipped at her gland, which throbbed under his continued attention. “Tell me how good your Alpha makes you feel.” 

_ Her Alpha _ . Something within her sang at the distinction, at the praise he moaned in her ear, the way that the worst of the heat and clutter in her mind seemed to abate with his words. She whimpered and pressed her forehead to his shoulder, rocking against him, reaching a hand between them to work her clit, halfway there already. 

“Rey.” He cupped her chin, bringing her focus back to him and grabbing her wrist with his other, free hand to stop her. She whined, blinking back tears of frustration and need, trying to move as best she could atop of him, only to find that it wasn't enough. She couldn't get the angle right without him helping her along, and her body was screaming at her to keep going. Demanding more. 

“Tell me. How good. I make you feel.” He parsed out every word, as if he knew her brain could barely comprehend full sentences right now, any momentary clarity shot dead as soon as she'd been seated atop of him. 

Even now, she felt her mouth moving though no words came out, her face scrunched up and her breathing labored. “Good, so good.  _ So full, Alpha _ .” 

“What do I do that makes you feel so good and so full?” he asked, stroking her back, dragging his fingertips over the curve of her spine and seeming to count every notch, as though wanting to ensure that she was all in one piece. Put together, entact.

Couldn’t he see that he was the one shattering her? 

“Fuck me?” The words came out as more of a request, stretched over her lips in a question that she desperately needed the answer to. “Your—your cock. Feels so good inside of me, stretches me out. ‘M so  _ full of you _ . Need you—need your knot inside me. Please.” 

She felt the vibration of his growl as his grip tightened on her chin. “Say that again.” 

She nodded. Yes, good. Alpha liked that. “Your  _ knot _ , Alpha. Need it inside of me, need your come, need you to fuck—fill—me—.” 

Her train of thought snapped as he released her chin and seated both hands on her waist, spanning the whole of it with ease so that his fingers touched at the very base of her hips, curled over the swell of her ass. She reached out to take his shoulders, desperate for something to cling to, as he lifted her with ridiculous ease and slammed her back down on his length. Lifted her like she was little more than a rag doll, a puppet for him to move and direct, to fuck as hard as he liked. 

“That’s what you are, that’s what you want to be, isn’t it, Rey? My plaything, cocksleeve for your Alpha. Gonna keep you on my cock _forever_ , I swear.” 

Her back arched, nipples dragging against his chest as he bounced her on his lap, unable to look away, certain he could see her every innermost thought, wondering how but not having near enough wherewithal to ask. All she knew was that yes, yes she did want that. Desperately. With everything she was. She nodded until her vision went blurry, though maybe those were the tears now freely flowing down her cheeks, salt joining the scent of their combined fluids as she felt the base of his knot starting to catch on her. 

“You want my knot? You begged for it so prettily, so perfectly, little Rey. You’re such a good girl for me, aren’t you? Think you deserve to get what you want.” 

She’d have nodded if she could do anything more than let him use her as he wanted. Yes, begging she could do. Begging she could manage if it meant she got what she needed so badly. “P-please.” She leaned in to kiss her way down his jaw, to rub her gland against his, an electric shock sparking through her every bone as she did. “Wanna—wanna come. Need to. Fill me up,  _ Alpha _ . Make me yours,  _ please _ .” 

His movements were getting jerky, shaky, the swell of his knot as he kept fucking her teasing her already overly sensitized skin, spreading her wider than she’d ever thought possible. She was going to come like this, all over him, make him as much hers as she was his. Her toes curled, and she leaned in to bite at the shell of his ear, mind hardly registering what she knew she had to tell him. “Need you to fill me, Kylo. Need your come, wanna see my stomach swell with your cock and your come filling me up until I’m bursting. please.” 

“Ben,” he grunted, sweat slicking their bodies as he laid her back down onto the ground, additional leverage adding to the speed of his thrusts until she was certain her very body might fall apart with the strength of his movements. “Call me Ben.” 

She nodded, kissing him, murmuring his name over and over against his lips as she felt her orgasm crest, her cunt spasming around him—and with a sense of finality and purpose, his knot slid inside of her and locked them together. Her toes curled as she felt him fill her cunt, just as she’d asked him to, a temporary balm to the warmth that now simmered low in her veins, and she turned her head to watch as he pressed lazy, open mouthed kisses to her breasts, collarbone. Neck. 

Her neck, where her mating gland, never before a worry for her—where he’d—where  _ she’d _ . Her heart plummeted and her veins now turned to ice. Kylo--Ben, whoever the hell he was--hadn’t seemed to notice, lapping instead at the overly sensitive skin as though he’d meant to do it all along. 

As though the flowers--the chase. Him biting her,  _ knotting them together _ . 

Mated them. 

_ Fuck _ . 

With a snarl, and not much thought to it, she brought her hand down on his face, heard him cry out in pain and surprise, felt skin give way under her fingernails. He took both hands and pinned them above her head, the scratch that she’d given him tracing over his eye, red and angry and dripping blood already. 

“The  _ FUCK  _ was that for?” he demanded in a voice like thunder, black eyes zeroing in on her and teeth bared. She could count them if she tried hard enough.

  
“You fucking  _ bit  _ me and  _ knotted  _ me, jackass!” she shouted, heart jumping to her throat to say it out loud, making it real. There was no taking it back now. “You—we’re fucking  _ mated _ !”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Content Warnings/Mild Spoilers**  
>  Dub-con sex due to Heat/Sex Pollen influences  
> Intrusive Omega thoughts  
> Possessive language and inner thoughts  
> Crying (not out of sadness) during sex  
> Overstimulation/lack of focus during sex leading to poor decision making for characters  
> Unprotected sex/knotting of a character on birth control  
> Concern on whether or not character has been honest from the start  
>  **Violence while knotted. One character lashes out at another in anger at situation and draws blood.**
> 
> WE'RE IN IT NOW, FRIENDS


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And I'm back! Thanks as ever for all of your support, it has been absolutely incredible. I hope you are all having a lovely weekend. Our stay at home order was just extended to mid-June, so. I'll be quarantined for some time it seems. C'est la vie, at least there's fic. 
> 
> As ever, please check the bottom notes for any chapter warnings/mild spoilers. There is a lot of Talking in this chapter, but I'll do my best to get us right back into the action (ba dum tish?) soon. 
> 
> Thanks again!!

Neither of them said anything for a few moments, and the patter of rain on the leaves overhead echoed in the space between Rey’s thoughts. Her neck throbbed, her cunt ached in a way she'd never known it to before, and her heat, while it seemed to have abated a little, she could still feel simmering within her. That was saying nothing about the irritation, the absolute horror at what she’d allowed herself to get lost in. 

How the fuck had this happened to her? How could this have come to be? She'd lived 22 years as a Beta, but one romp through the forest at night for 50 grand later, and she was knotted—quite literally stuck—with a man she'd let pay to fuck her? 

Fucking  _ what? _

He spoke first, and for that, she had to admit she was grateful. “That's--that cannot be.” He looked so confused, staring down between them as though expecting his knot not to be buried deep within her, locking them together. 

As if he expected this to be little more than a fantasy, especially given how certain he’d seemed before that he’d have the self control to keep from doing just this. Rey wanted to snort, barely keeping from doing so as she laid her head back and fought to keep from shouting in frustration. Deep breaths. 

She felt something slick hit her pinned forearm and looked up to see a droplet of blood sliding its way across the curve of her skin, watering the grass and leaving a trail in its wake. 

“You told me you were a Beta,” he said after a moment, tone hard.  _ Furious _ . Something told her that she should be cowering under the weight of the stare he leveled at her. She couldn’t bring herself to. 

“And you said you wouldn't knot me,” Rey spat, tipping her chin down so that she could glower at him. “Besides, I am—I thought I was, at least. I've never had a heat—.”

Ben growled above her and she felt his hands flex where they gripped her. She’d have pulled away if she could move more than a few inches at most. Was it normal for her every muscle to ache during a heat? Or was this just because he’d actually fucked within an inch of her life? 

He didn’t look as though he believed it. “You knew the contract, though. You should have said something if you thought you’d be a late presenter. Surely your parents—.”

Rey bristled, feeling her hackles rise at the mention. Not that he could have possibly known she was wondering the same damn thing. Then again, who would they have told? It’d been so late at night, and no one had been really paying attention when she had been brought to the firehouse. . . ..

“I don't know who they are. Or what.” She felt her throat tighten, though more out of anger. Who did he think he was to chastise her, to think himself privy to that information? “So. There's a lot they didn't fucking share with me. Least of all about my designation.” 

Ben paused. His hands relaxed where he held her, and she thought she heard him mutter “ _ well shit _ ,” before he rolled the both of them over onto their sides with ridiculous ease. Rey allowed herself to be moved—because honestly what choice did she have?—but hated herself for how easily she then let herself be wrapped in his arms. Even as her anger simmered so close to the surface there was no denying that being this close to him was . . . Nice. 

_ Dick _ .

“What’re you doing?” she muttered against his chest, frustrated with how large he was. How he dwarfed her and made it impossible to be angry when he was keeping her so close. And then there was the way he smelled that was really just rude. Uncalled for. Obscene, even. It was as though every inhale of his scent brought with it a desire to relax, to allow herself to be held tight. As though his very presence was calming her. 

She didn’t like it, not one bit. 

He sighed and she felt the air tickle the loose tendrils of hair on her forehead. “Comforting you. Is it working?”

_ Yes _ . “No,” she muttered, just to be an ass. She felt his chest rumble with a laugh that she wished didn’t make her heart stutter. “I—Ben, is it? Okay. What the hell is your actual name? I'm guessing Kylo Ren was for what, the NDA?”

“Yes. I thought that prudent,” he said. She felt his chest slow down, heard his heartbeat begin to even out. Huh. Must have been a two way street, this whole calming thing. “You could've been anyone.”

“Still can be,” she reminded him, looking up to shoot him a small smile, one he only half returned. “But. Since we're apparently going to be here awhile…?” 

She watched as he chewed on the inside of his cheek, Rey all but able to see the way the cogs in his head turned as he weighed his options. At this point, she didn't understand why. He'd bitten her first after all. Wasn't this fair play, to ask questions? To figure out who the hell she'd managed to mate herself to? 

And why wasn't she freaking out about this more? Even with her deep breathing, shouldn’t there have been an element of . . . panic? This was her  _ life _ , his life! So why was it that every time she felt her mind start to race, it was almost as though it calmed right back down again. 

Whether he was wondering the same thing she wasn’t certain, but as she listened to him breathe slowly, he at least seemed to be settling in and not looking to retaliate. Which, honestly, she couldn’t have blamed him if he did. The scratch she’d left him was puffy, and looked like it might scar, but at least it had mostly stopped bleeding.  _ Fuck _ , that had been a really stupid move. He could’ve easily had her sued for bodily harm, or just killed her then and there. Not like anyone would find the body. 

She shivered, and his grip on her became just a little tighter. That same sense of calm, of collected peace, settled all the heavier on her shoulders. 

“My name is Benjamin Organa-Skywalker-Solo. My mother is Senator Leia Organa-Skywalker, and my father is the—.” 

“Mclaren driver, Han Solo,” she finished his sentence with wide eyes, clapping a hand over her mouth as he stared down at her in disbelief that, of all the names she seemed to know, that was the one she’d picked. “You’re—but you’re famous. Or at least by proxy—.” Now the NDA, the fake name, all made sense. She felt her stomach bottom out, her mouth waxy, his blood still on her taste buds if she concentrated hard enough. . 

Rather than answer, he rolled them over, keeping her tight to him as he moved to lay on his back, with Rey sprawled across his chest. She hissed at the feeling of his knot, still throbbing inside of her, burying her face in his chest with a whimper as she felt another spurt of come spill into her, as though she needed the reminder. 

“I’ve been written about,” he said, and she felt his shrug, as though it was nothing. No big deal. Fucking unbelievable. She tipped her head up just enough so that she could see him through her eyelashes, finding that he wasn’t looking at her, but rather the canopy of branches above them. “I work here and there for my mother’s foundations, her non-profits. I studied law at Harvard. I live in Challandria.”

“I go to Uni there,” Rey murmured, having felt herself shrink with his every word. There was no way this was her life, no way that this was actually happening to her right now. She’d wake up and this would all be a dream. A nightmare of an embarrassing situation, absolutely, but no way that this could have actually happened to her. 

“Oh, good. When we relocate, then, it won’t be too much for you to have to commute.” 

She felt her heart stutter at that. Wait. Relocate?” She sat up, her hands on his chest, trying not to whimper as she felt him shift within her.  _ Shit _ , how was it that he was still so impossibly deep? His knot didn’t feel like it had started to lessen; how long was it supposed to last? 

He looked at her as though he wasn’t sure how it was she hadn’t heard him properly, his eyes staring into hers. “Relocate. You’ll be moving in with me. For . . . better or for worse, we’re mated now.” He swallowed thickly. “And that’ll come with some new expectations and changes. For both of us.” 

Changes. 

_ Changes.  _

She growled, pushing up and off of him as best she could again, trying to pull herself free but stopping as soon as the pain near blinded her and Ben beneath her shouted hoarsely.

“What the hell do you think you’re—.”

“I’m not  _ changing my life _ because you fucking—because you have no self control!” She felt her heart start to skip again, panic finding her much like her heat (fuck that word was still so strange) had: crashing over her head and forcing her under the waves of disbelief and doubt. “I’m not—I’m a student. I have a life ahead of me, Ben! God my biggest worries at the beginning of the week were about how I was going to pay my bills, sure, not when,  _ or if, _ I was going to be mated!”

He reached for her again, frowning. “Hey, deep breaths—.” 

“Don’t—there aren’t any breaths deep enough—.” 

“Omega.  _ Calm down _ .” 

She felt her pulse drop and her anxiety with it; her bones weakened against the depth of his voice, and her breathing grew deeper at his request. Sleepy would’ve been the best word to describe it. Contented. She relaxed, laying back atop him as he wrapped his arms around her midsection and stroked her hair, his broad chest vibrating as she leaned into his touch. 

_ “Good girl.” _

She’d have shuddered if her body would let her. “The fuck. Did you do to me?” she asked as calmly as she could muster, her brain unable to so much as  _ consider  _ the idea of getting worked up about it. _ Alpha said calm down. Need to be good. Need to listen to your Alpha, he’ll take care of you. He knows best. _

“You were going to hyperventilate and hurt both of us. I did what I had to.” A pause. She couldn’t even bring herself to look at him. “I’m sorry.” 

_ Sorry _ . Sorry felt like weaksauce for the use of his Voice on her like that. She’d heard about it, certainly knew that an Alpha Voice could affect even the strongest willed Betas, though not near to the extent as an Omega. 

But to think that something so simple could be used against her, now? She’d have gotten worked up all over again if her body would’ve let her. 

“Don’t do that again. I don’t like it,” she muttered, toes curling, fingers twitching as she struggled not to beat on his chest. “And don’t give me any of that bullshit about ‘then listen to what I say the first time’ because buddy?  _ I’m not that Omega. _ ” 

He sighed, saying nothing, and the sound of the rain overhead filled any silence that might have been left between them once again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Content Warnings/Mild Spoilers**  
>  Mild blood  
> Discussion of violence and fear of retribution  
> Mentioned abandonment  
> Use of Alpha voice/forced calm  
> Intrusive Omega Thoughts  
> Dub-Con Snuggling?  
> Panic/mentions of anxiety and hyperventilating


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much, as ever, for continued reading! I struggled with this chapter more than any of the others. It's all fun and games to start a project, that's what I love most about new WIPs, but maintaining gravitas and emotional weight and consequence through a story . . . some days I struggle. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy this chapter in spite of that. A thousand-and-one thanks to Poet for assuring me this isn't trash and helping me with some trickier spots (and being an all-around amazing cheerleader, you're seriously the sweetest). 
> 
> Check the end notes for content warnings and/or mild spoilers. There are some themes in this chapter that I wanted to sort of mirror real life today . . . without being too depressing? Or on the nose. Please feel free to let me know if I went overboard and need to add any additional warnings below or to the tags. I tried to add everything I could think of I cackled every time Dub-Con snuggling got mentioned in the comments; I want it on my tombstone. 
> 
> Thanks again!

When his knot finally released, Rey couldn’t get herself up and off of him soon enough. Her knees still felt weak, her heart had only started to allow itself to quicken again, but she needed to get up. 

“I . . . I suppose you’ll need me to go home?” she asked, wrapping her arms around her midsection, certain that if she didn’t hold herself together, she’d fall apart in front of him. She didn’t want to do that again, didn’t want him to really see her when she forced herself to come to terms with that they’d just done. “I don't want to intrude? I—well, I invalidated the contract. Right?” Fuck. Did that mean she had to give all that money back? She worried at her bottom lip. There was no chance he’d do that, would he? He’d at least gotten most of what he was looking for—the chase, getting to conquer her. Hell, he got to pop his knot, so if anything could she maybe demand more—. 

He stood too, though his hands went to his hips, not minding at all that he was naked, his cock covered in both of their come. “What are you talking about?”

She shifted, wishing her legs weren’t still so sticky. “I—Well, we didn’t know it at the time but it doesn’t make me any less of an Omega. I guess. At this time. And, well, that was a stipulation.” 

“No, but what do you mean, go home?” His brow furrowed at that. “You’re not seriously thinking of leaving? You just started your first heat—the fact that you’re standing here right now makes me think it’s a possible false heat, but I’m not about to let you—.” 

_ “Let me? _ ”

“Yes, Rey. Let you leave. That would be ridiculously dangerous for an Omega on the best of days, under the most pure of circumstances—this is neither of these.”

That wasn’t going to fly. Never before had Rey had to so much as consider the fact that her leaving, from any given place or at any time, was dangerous to her or to someone else (though she’d certainly heard horror stories enough of Omegas stopped on roads by Alpha officers, what few were allowed still on the force.) 

To now consider that her every move would need to be equally monitored, done at the right time, that she’d need to actually put in for heat leave . . . . Unkar would fire her on the spot for so much as suggesting it, even if discrimination based on Status had been illegal for the past forty years. She felt herself take a dizzied step backwards, her head spinning and breath coming in short pants. How was she going to keep her job? The fifty-grand wasn’t going to sustain her forever—. 

“Rey?” Kylo—Ben’s concern bled through her panic, his worry cementing her back to the present, the now, as she stared up into his concerned expression. He stepped closer, and she couldn’t help it. She bolted again. 

She had to get out of here. Had to get away, had to get back home where she was safe, secure, surrounded by things that smelled like her—. Back to where she knew her things were. 

If she’d thought Ben was fast the first time, when he was chasing her for sport, she should’ve expected that he’d be fucking  _ inhuman  _ in chasing the Omega he’d mated with. Before she’d so much as made it a hundred yards she felt his arms wrap around her waist. She shrieked and tried to fight him off, thrashing and gnashing her teeth, hoping to draw blood in a decidedly non-sexytimes way. She did her best to ignore the telltale swooping of her stomach and fire that sparked in her veins as he lifted her bodily off the ground and balanced her between his two, ridiculously muscular, arms. 

She hadn’t stood a fucking chance. 

She thrashed in his iron grip, hating him for having such a solid hold on her, while also trying not to preen at how perfectly she seemed to fit against him.  _ Stupid lizard brain.  _

Was it always going to be like this? “Put me down!”

“Absolutely. Once we’re back inside and I can talk some sense into you.” 

She felt the color leave her face, her eyes searching but not seeing the forest as he guided them through it. “Ben, I need to go  _ home _ . I take what I said before back, I can’t— I can’t stay. Surely you understand. This,  _ you don’t want this either _ —.” Right? He hadn’t wanted it, had he?  _ What if he had? What if he planned it all along, what if he meant this to be a trap. Trap--trap--TRAPPED. NEED TO GET OUT! _

“Rey.  _ Rey _ . I need you to focus. Listen to me.” 

She looked up, finally, and his own cutting gaze shut her brain up. She stilled in his grip as he stopped, the world hanging in the balance and silence between them. 

“You are my mate,” he said. The rain had stopped, though Rey couldn’t begin to explain when, and the unobstructed moonlight highlighted his full lips, pressed into a line, his furrowed brow and the line of his set jaw. She felt her heart jump into her throat. “I will always want you, Rey. From this day until my last.” 

It was all she could do to keep from shaking at the finality in his tone, allowing herself to rest her head against him, his words easing some of the tightness in her chest. It’d be prudent, she tried to remind herself as she closed her eyes, to save her strength until she needed it. 

  
  
  


It was  _ annoying  _ how little time it took for Ben to bring them both back to the cabin, as he’d affectionately called it. They seemed to be the only two awake, though what a sight it would have been to see the stark naked master of the house climbing the stairs (taking three at a time,  _ damn  _ his long legs). 

The bathroom he brought her to was attached to the master suite, in the opposite wing from where she’d been set up on her first evening, though she had a difficult time pinning down more specificities than that. Gently, he sat her down on the counter of the vanity, murmuring an apology for the chill when she hissed in surprise. She silently watched as he padded towards the tub large enough to accommodate an entire family of four, and twisted the taps until warm water filled it nearly halfway. 

How had she gotten here? How had she possibly managed to find herself in such a place, in such a situation, watching as this behemoth of a man gathered soap and washcloths to set beside the tub, before finally coming to collect her. How, she wondered as she was eased into the water, was she ever going to find some shred of normalcy again, if it came with Ben along with it? 

_ What would that even look like? He’s the son of a goddamn senator and celebrity driver. _

She barely kept herself from yipping in surprise, yanked out of her thoughts, when Ben slid in behind her, his legs bracketing hers. When she didn’t immediately relax back against him, he gently pulled her closer, until her back warmed from the contact against his broad chest. “What am I going to do with you?” he muttered, as she wrapped her arms around her waist, turning her head slightly to glower at him. 

What a small world, for her to be wondering the same thing.

She scoffed. “Nothing. Let me go home.” 

“Rey.” He sighed and shook his head, a move that didn’t bode well for her already frazzled nerves. “That’s . . . I’m sorry. That’s not a possibility. Even if your heat doesn’t crop back up, which it still might come back with full force. You know what it means to be mated, don’t you?” 

She struggled not to roll her eyes. “I do have a high school education, and access to public television. I’ve seen Maury and Jerry Springer.” 

His snort nearly jostled water over the edge of the tub. “That . . . doesn’t give me much hope.” 

“Fuck you.”

“Did that. I’m happy to oblige though, if you’re not too sore—.” 

Her cunt, admittedly, throbbed at the tempting offer.  _ Traitor.  _ “And let you knot me again? No thanks. My birth control doesn’t need to be extra tested if it doesn’t have to be.” 

She felt him shake with a subdued laugh, putting on a front even though she could feel the displeasure at being told  _ no  _ ripple through him. Interesting. 

He ran his hands down her shoulders gently, pressing his lips to the base of her neck. She wished it didn’t make her heart jump into her throat. “I want to do right by you, Rey,” he murmured. “And I want you to feel as though your life is still your own. But there are expectations I face, too. I know this isn’t how either of us envisioned this weekend going. At least, I know I didn’t.” 

The pause that followed his words had her turning around to look at him, her eyes narrowing. “Please don’t even  _ think  _ about insinuating that this was my plan all along.” 

His eyes searched hers, and she’d just opened her mouth to give him a whole goddamn piece of her mind when he shook his head. It didn’t loosen the tightness she had in her chest that the sliver of doubt was even there to begin with, the hesitation. 

He leaned over to grab a washcloth and a small bottle of soap, squeezing a fair amount out onto the cloth before, meticulously, soaping up every inch of skin bared to him. “Your reaction was far too genuine to be faked. No, I know you didn’t plan on this. I believe you about not knowing you were an Omega. I am truly sorry you had to find out this way.” 

She could hear the ‘but’ that was due to follow his words, shoulders tense even as he drew his thumbs across the space between her shoulder blades and pressed, rubbing the sore muscles to try and help alleviate some of the pressure. 

“But.” 

_ Ah, there it was.  _

“I aim to see this through. For better or for worse, it’s just us now.” She could hear the hesitation in his voice, the pause that made her anxiety flare up once again. “We’re in this together. Right?” 

She swallowed thickly, hating to admit to herself that he had a point. High on her Omega hormones or not,  _ she’d bit him back _ , sealing their bond, mating them together. There was no going back, no do-overs. Severing the bond was . . . not unheard of, but certainly not ideal, left for the most extreme of circumstances. She’d only known of a few publicised cases, treated as cautionary tales in school, of demanded emancipation between a mated pair. Aside from being wildly expensive and almost impossible to find a doctor willing to do so, it was fucking dangerous; the therapy from having to recover from what was described as half of your soul being severed from your being, was six-digits per session, last she’d seen reported. 

Running, while not the most pragmatic of responses, had certainly been the least expensive as her mind had seen it.

As Ben brought the soft washcloth to her chest, she allowed herself to lay back against him once more, her toes curling as he passed over her collarbone, her breasts, her abdomen. 

“Right,” she said finally, trying not to notice the way he visibly relaxed behind her at the affirmation, or how that same sense of ease seemed to bleed from his body to hers. 

She reasoned, as he eased a hand between her legs, parting her lower lips so as to rub slow, easy circles over her clit with his thumb, that she could keep the money he’d already deposited into her account as a back-up plan. Just in case. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Content Warnings/Mild Spoilers**  
>  Overarcing themes of lack of control or independence.  
> Possessive Alpha Behavior  
> "Alpha Knows Best" behavior  
> Mentioned restriction of character leaving/moving  
> Manhandling/Carrying of character without their consent  
> Anxiety over character bonding/mating  
> Insinuated cases/broad strokes of domestic abuse (not between main pairing)  
> Mentioned loss of mate/severing of mating bond (not between main pairing)


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This . . . is almost entirely pure porn. Not even remotely sorry about it haha; who would I be if I didn't acknowledge my roots?   
> Thank you so much for your continued readership, and for your incredibly kind words! You're all so very thoughtful and so monumental in me being able to continue writing these two Hot Messes, I'm so glad to be able to offer you up a story in return. 
> 
> As ever, please check below for any content warnings/potential spoilers, and thank you a million for everything.

She considered running away no less than five times after Ben had walked with her back to her room and kissed her goodnight. She made it as far as out of her bedroom door around five in the morning, but rather than carrying her down the stairs and out the front door, her feet padded their way to Ben’s room, knuckles rapping on the door as softly as she could manage. 

_ I’ll just see if he answers, if he doesn’t I’ll—.  _

“Rey?” she heard him murmur on the other side. She stifled a sob of surprise as he opened the door moments later, dark eyes hooded with half-sleep and the shadow of stubble stumbling over his jaw. 

Wordlessly, he pulled her into his arms, and as she went to him the restlessness within was left at the door. 

He turned down the covers for her to crawl underneath, following her down and wrapping his arms around her tight enough that she felt like she might choke, but couldn’t ask him to relax. She didn’t want him to. As much as she didn’t understand it, he quieted her inner monologue, silencing the new voice that she’d since decided she wanted ripped out of her head, placating her heart until she could think clearly again. 

“I thought heats were supposed to last for days,” she muttered after a moment. It’d been nagging at her mind, why she wasn’t out of sorts with her hormones in a more . . . fun way. This whole sitting around, moping, debating whether or not she ought to try and escape from her Alpha was decidedly less exciting than she had expected a first heat to be, and her brain was calling for far too much attention to what she  _ wasn’t  _ doing rather than what she was. 

“They usually do,” Ben said, voice hoarse from sleep, thick and gravelly in a way that made her skin burst into gooseflesh, even as she tried to play it off as though she was simply cold. Her eyes traced the already healing scratch she’d given him, her nails having just missed his eye. She’d put neosporin on it after their bath, but she couldn’t deny that some part of her . . . well, she’d left her mark on him. Figuratively. Literally. In more ways than one. Something deep inside of her purred in happiness. 

Ben leaned in to kiss her forehead. “Like I said, I think it’s a false heat, or a breakthrough heat, making it far more unpredictable than a usual one.”

_ Fantastic _ . “So what does that mean?”

“That if nothing changes in the morning, we’ll leave and head back home. I’ll send someone to move your things in from your apartment.” He paused at her silence. “Rey, don’t overthink it.” 

_ Don’t overthink it? _ How could she not? He was telling her he’d be moving her into his house, that they’d be living together—what if he hated the way that all she ate some days were Lightly Salted Lays? Or if he was a complete control freak, as she suspected he might be, and demanded control over every aspect of her life? Her mouth went dry, but slowly she turned to look at him. 

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea. Won’t it look really suspicious, us moving in together so soon?” she asked, hoping it didn’t sound like she was grasping at straws. He was a politician’s son, and as he said he worked for certain non-profits (which, of course he did.) Surely image would mean a great deal, wouldn’t it?

“Possibly. But not if we play this off as a whirlwind romance,” he muttered. “We went away for a weekend to my grandparent’s cabin and came back—. 

“Mated.” 

“Together,” he assured her. “I . . . will need to tell my mother, of course. She’ll need to know in case it gets brought up.” 

“Why would it—.” The realization dawned.  _ Of course. _ If it looked as though he’d forced himself on her it could be disastrous. While she’d been unable to sleep she’d taken a gander at Leia Organa-Skywalker’s Wikipedia, and political page, her stomach having twisted to realize that Rey knew more about this woman than she’d initially thought. She knew about her policies from an Intro to Political Sciences class last year, how she’d been fighting for Omega independence and rights ever since she was old enough to step into the political arena. Her adopted parents had been advocates in Alderaan before their untimely death, before her reuniting with her twin brother. Luke, an Omega himself, had been cited as her desire to throw herself to the political wolves, so to speak. And when the bombshell had landed that they were the descendents of  _ the  _ Anakin Skywalker and Padme Amidala-Skywalker . . . well. 

“Your heart is beating quickly again, little one.” Ben pulled her in closer, snuffling quietly as he inhaled the scent of her, ran his lips over her exposed gland. Her moan spilled out from her lips, unstoppable, unavoidable, as her body flamed in anticipation, still so keyed up from the orgasm he’d given her in the tub, as though her body already knew that this . . . attraction, mutually assured destruction, connection, between them wasn’t going away any time soon. 

“I promise. Leia’s bark is worse than her bite. She’s going to love you.” 

He shifted under the covers, bracketing her in with his body, the movement forcing her to look up and into his eyes. There was sincerity there she hadn’t expected to see, a strange sort of warmth that made her stomach twist. 

But what would it mean for Leia to love her? What would it mean when she found out the real reason that she and Ben were together at all, was because of a complete accident? A comedy of errors more akin to a bad soap opera than real life. 

She keened when Ben’s fingers slid against her thighs as he hiked up the hem of the overly-large sleep shirt she’d stolen from him. The smell of him had been more of a comfort than she’d like to admit, but now it blended together with the waves arousal she could scent on the air, from both him and from her. She’d never known she was able to do that before now. She could feel his smile on her skin as he brought his face down between her legs, stubble tickling her sensitive skin, his tongue sliding along the seam of her, tasting how much she wanted him and humming in pleasure at what he found. 

“Don’t tease,” she begged, back arching as his lips found her clit and sealed around the small bud, tongue flicking in slow, leisurely strokes as his hands fisted her shirt and rolled it the rest of the way up. She shimmied out of it willingly, hands finding purchase in his hair. Her nails scraped against his scalp, and she felt him moan, the vibrations sending frissons of pleasure up her spine in an entirely new way. 

“Need more, Ben.  _ Alpha _ .” Fuck,  _ what was she saying _ ? Had her brain leaked from her ears? Had all true function been lost in the maddening give and take of pleasure he saw fit to give to her?

“What do you want, Omega?” he asked, pulling away with a wet pop, sliding up the length of her. She could feel him, hard and pulsing, against her inner thigh, his boxers having been shucked off already, could feel the trail of precome his cock left in its wake. God, she’d have bathed herself in his come if she could, if only so the smell of him would never leave her skin. 

“You. Inside me.  _ Now _ .” She stared up at him, hooking her legs around his hips, though the angle was wrong. She ground down against his cock, the tip catching her clit and making her back bow, but it wasn’t enough. 

His right hand found her hip and held her down, pinning her entire abdomen beneath the weight of him. “So demanding, my girl is. Ask nicely.” 

She bared her teeth and he bit her chin, nosing at the curve of her jaw. He rocked his hips so that she was deprived of friction and fullness in all the ways her body demanded. 

“Ask. Nicely. I know you can do it.” 

“ _ Fuck me _ .” She felt her body begin to tremble as he parodied fucking her, his body moving in such a way that if he was inside of her he’d be so deep they’d never get him out. She tried to move her hips, bucked beneath him every time the length of him slid along her slit, desperate tears leaking from the corners of her eyes as she stared up at him. 

He only smiled, patient and placid as ever, as though he would like nothing better than to continue doing this until he came, leaving her unsatisfied. 

She hated the way that the idea made her heart jump with almost frenzied anticipation.  _ How fucked up was she, now? _

When her toes curled and her heels pressed into the small of his back, only to find he wouldn’t give more than he absolutely wanted to, she broke down. “Please.  _ Please  _ fuck me, Ben. Alpha. Need your cock—oh!” 

The hand that had so firmly kept her in place slid underneath her ass, cupping her backside and angling her just so, so when he moved his hips again, he hilted himself within her this time. All of him, the base of his cock already starting to swell. She gasped, mouth falling open. Beside the bed, the sun had begun to rise, bathing their skin and the entire world in a deep purpled crimson that might have been poetic if words weren’t next to impossible. 

“Need my cock, do you?” he growled, balancing himself on his left forearm above her, hips snapping with single-minded determination. If she’d thought him so unaffected by the teasing and toying he so willingly inflicted upon her, now she could see how mistaken she was. His pace was brutal, unrelenting, punishing her for taking so long while also praising her for taking him so well, his length filling every last inch of her until she could feel him in her throat. “ _ Needy _ Omega. You have to learn how to ask for what you want, how to beg me. You’re so pretty when you cry, when you’re desperate, but I need to hear you, baby. Can you do that for me?” 

She nodded so hard she thought her neck might snap, and he leaned closer to kiss her once again, his tongue carrying the flavor of her arousal until it filled her senses. “Good girl, knew you could do that for me,” he praised when they broke for air, his words stilted by the way his whole body trembled above her. “‘M gonna come, Rey. Need you to get yourself off. You made me wait so long, baby, so you better make yourself come all over my cock before I spill into you.” 

She could do that. Couldn’t she? Her hands felt a million times heavier than ever before, barely able to bring her fingers between her cunt to rub hard, quick circles over her clit while her left hand massaged and played with her breasts. This he seemed to like best, his gaze zeroing in on the way she tweaked her nipples, ran her fingernails along the underside of her left breast, before massaging the right, all the while he jackhammered into her with single-minded need. 

When she came he wasn’t far behind her, knot catching on her cunt, sealing the two of them together with a deep grunt she felt all the way to her toes. Rey could do little more than shake, her mind breaking down to a repeated chorus of  _ yesyesyesgoodOmegagoodOmegasogood _ as she clutched Ben’s shoulders and clamped down harder around him. 

“That’s it,” he praised softly. “That’s it. So good for me, Rey. So good.” 

_ So good, you did so good. _

She buried her face deeper into his chest as he eased them over to their sides once more, the bed a far cry from the first time they’d been stuck together. As the sun began to crest and illuminate the rest of the room, she found herself easing into what already felt like the best sleep she’d had in years, Ben’s arms holding her tight to him. 

  
  
  


They left later that afternoon, Rey wistfully watching the cottage disappear through the trees, her small bag of belongings nestled between her legs in the front seat of Ben’s TIE Coupe, the engine purring as he opened it up once they got onto the highway. His free hand rested on her thigh, rubbing slow, nonsensical patterns against the bare skin her shorts left exposed, and she could hardly keep from shivering every time he glanced her way. 

As they got closer to town his dash lit up with an incoming call. _ MOM WORK. _

He swore under his breath, casting another quick look at her. “I have to take this.” 

She hummed her understanding, not trusting herself to speak, any sense of peace or relaxation shattered the moment his thumb pressed on the  _ CALL  _ button, and Leia’s voice filled the car, as though standing in front of them. 

“Benjamin, what the _everloving fuck_ did you just do?” 

“Good to talk to you too, mom. You’re on speaker, by the way.” 

Leia swore again, far more muted this time, and Rey found herself hiding the smallest of smiles as she looked out the window, latching on to the reminder that, even with all of her accomplishments and societies, with her non-profits and legal legacy, even Senator Organa-Skywalker was human enough to embarrass herself. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Content Warnings/Mild Spoilers**  
>  Developing dependency on others  
> BDSM/D/s Overtones


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey friends, I hope this finds you all well, or at least as well as we can be during these . . . interesting times. I hope this update provides a modicum of normalcy and welcome distraction, even if only for a moment. Please, as ever, check the warning notes at the bottom if you desire; this chapter is pretty mild. There will also be links to clothes mentioned/referenced in this chapter below, in case you're a visual person like me. I'll put them just below the warnings.
> 
> Thanks, as ever, for all of your comments and for reading; they're helping me stay sane, truthfully.

“You’re fidgeting again.” 

Rey swallowed thickly, looking up at the ceiling to keep from throttling the woman to her left, her arms aching from holding them as still as possible as the attendant shuffled around her, measuring tape in hand, poking and prodding Rey until she shifted as she was allowed. It’d been five short hours since she and Ben had made it back to his home, a veritable mansion compared to what Rey was used to, and Leia had whisked him away so they could come up with a game plan. A story for the presses once the truth inevitably came out. 

  
  
  


_ “We have to get ahead of this, Benjamin. How could you be so careless?” Leia may have been well over a foot shorter than her son, but her gaze could’ve leveled anyone flat. “I really don’t know what goes on in that head of yours.” _

_ Ben’s hand squeezed Rey’s, their fingers slotted together, as though a last effort to keep from being split apart. His thumb rubbed slowly at her wrist, feeling her pulse, and Rey tried not to examine why it made her feel as though she’d swallowed bees.  _

_ “What’s done is done, mother. Rey, I’d like you to meet Leia Organa-Skywalker. Mom, this is Rey . . . .”  _

_ “Rey Johnson,” Rey had offered, feeling her throat and chest heat up with her embarrassment as Leia looked at the hand she’d just offered, then leaned closer to pull Rey in for a hug. She and Ben’s hands separated. _

_ “You’re family now, kiddo. No disrespect meant by anything I’m saying it’s just—well. We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us.” _

  
  
  


Rey had been left to be carted to the ritzy side of Challandria she’d only ever seen played out in movies, never actually thought to make her way down now. Tiffany’s, Saks Fifth Avenue, Valentino, Armani. Lord, if Rose could see her now. She’d texted her best friend, letting her know that she’d be out later than expected, Rose having known roughly what it was that Rey had signed up for over the weekend, but had been spared the more . . . delicate details. 

Like the fact that she’d gone away a Beta and was coming back an Omega mated to a goddamn socialite. Yeah, that was going to go over real well via text. 

“Please, ma’am. I need you to stop shifting so much. I am nearly done.” 

“Sorry,” Rey snapped, wincing as soon as the word left her mouth. “Sorry. I’ll try harder.” 

The stylist, (Gabi? Abby? She’d been awake for too long and simultaneously, not long enough) hummed, though her expression softened at the second apology, and true to her word finished within the next couple minutes. As Rey stepped off the dais, arms wrapped around her waist for lack of anything else better to do with them, she looked around the otherwise nearly empty store. “So. You have all you need?” 

The other woman nodded, looking down at the pad of paper in her hand, hazel eyes skimming over the numbers she’d written down before turning on her heel and stepping away. She gestured for Rey to follow when it became apparent that she wasn’t hot on her heels. 

Rey, unsure how to politely tell her no thank you, followed anyway. “I thought I was just here for measurements—.” 

“Yes. So we can size you accurately. Sit. Please,” the woman gestured at a cream loveseat on the left-hand side of the styling room Rey had been guided to as soon as she’d explained who she was at the door. Ben, or Leia, were quicker on their promise of calling ahead than she’d expected.

No sooner had she taken a seat, sneaking a glance at Gabi’s name tag, and racks of dresses, slacks, shirts, shoes, accessories, were pulled into the room until there was hardly space for her to breathe, let alone look at them all. What in the hell had she been signed up for? 

“This—this is way too much,” Rey stammered, getting back to her feet, even as her eyes followed the satin-y sheen of a sand colored dress, watching the way it seemed to almost pour out into its form in front of her eyes. She’d never seen fabric move like that. 

“The Organa-Skywalkers are some of our best clients. When Leia says to take care of someone, there’s no such thing as too much.” A snap of the Gabi’s fingers and the piece that Rey had been immediately taken with was pulled out for inspection. 

Now she understood why this woman was entrusted with this task. Shoes were brought to match as Gabi pointed, delegating for refreshments to be provided as a full outfit was concocted for Rey to try on, with others already in the works based on the measurements that had been taken. Rey was guided towards the fitting room attached to their little alcove of the store, which was more opulent, not to mention larger, than Rey’s whole apartment. 

  
  
  


_ “We’ll just be gone for a couple hours, then I’ll come meet you for dinner and we can talk.” Ben had kissed her forehead, silencing Rey’s protests as his mother went to gather her things. “I promise, you’ll have more fun without me than if I came with you.”  _

_ “Getting measured?” she asked, wrinkling her nose. “Shouldn’t I be there while you two discuss the official story and premise of how you and I became mated? I need to know what to tell my friends, too. I have people who I have to break the news to.”  _

_ Ben’s brow frowned, his head tipping to the side as his eyes searched hers. “We’ll catch up over dinner. Trust me when I say you don’t want to be around my mother when she’s in a state like this. You’re better off than I am.”  _

  
  
  


Was she, though? It sure didn’t feel like it, even as she shimmied the dress on over her head, zipping it up as far as she could before her arm would’ve needed to contort unnaturally. She nearly tripped and fell on her face trying to get the heels on that’d been provided to go with the outfit, the narrow point of the stiletto as deadly as a killer wasp. Yeah, that was a pass on the shoes. She’d ask for flats, or something a little more stable. 

If this was supposed to be her gig, then she might as well get used to asking for what she wanted. 

When she came back out she was given a small smile and dip of Gabi’s head of approval, before being sent back with at least a dozen other outfits to try. True to expectation, everything fit as though it had been tailored and crafted with Rey in mind, and by her third glass of champagne, she found she didn't mind the squabble of figuring out which shade of coral matched her undertones, or whether or not it was too gauche to have matching flip flops paired with a dress that cost nearly a semester’s tuition. 

She hardly recognized herself in the mirror whenever she was brought to stand in front of it, sure that any moment they would denounce her as a fraud and force her to pay for the alcohol, the time, and commission for those who were working so hard to get her dressed. A bizarre concept, truly. 

When she’d finally had enough, the mound of clothes carefully curated large enough to fill her entire wardrobe back home, her anxiety had reached a fever pitch. 

  
  
  


_ “Ben I can't take this.” _

_ “Why not?” His brow furrowed as he looked from the black card in her hand, back up to her. “I want you to have a good time and not worry.” _

_ “Ben, this thing practically weighs as much as a baby bird, meaning the limit is more than I can comprehend. If it exists.” Rey shook her head, trying to force it back to him. He refused.  _

_ “Rey, it's yours. Have a good time, I mean it. At least this way, if I can't be there to buy something for my mate, I know you're well taken care of. Just be sure to pick out something pretty to show me, won't you?”  _

_ It felt like a dismissal, and she had to struggle to keep from letting the shock play out on her face. It was the sort of thing to shut her up, to placate her so she'd do as she asked. _

_ Worse than all that, it worked.  _

  
  
  


She didn't want to see the bill, didn't think she could stand to, as she offered the black card with Ben's name on it to Gabi and struggled to keep from vomiting into one of the glossy white bags that held her soon to be wardrobe. Her entire wardrobe back home consisted of thrifted finds she’d tailored to fit her, or else had been relegated to work clothes, the grease stains too set in to consider getting out. 

When the receipt was pressed into the bottom of one of her bags, and an associate followed her out to where Ben’s driver had parked the car so they could drop off her purchases, she was pretty sure she was on the verge of a damn nervous collapse. 

“Hey—sorry. Before you go,” Rey said, reaching out to grab the wrist of the young woman, who turned around, eyes wide as she stared down at where Rey had grabbed her. 

Right, shit. “Sorry,” she said again, swallowing thickly. 

“It’s okay. What’s—how can I help?”

Rey felt her fingers start to tremble, fisting them behind her back to keep from letting her nerves get the best of her. “Do you—I need a burger. And a shake. Is there any place I can get one around here?” 

  
  


_ “You’ll need to move her belongings in as quickly and discreetly as possible, Ben,” Leia said as they all prepared to leave, Ben to follow his mother, Rey to be driven to whatever she needed measurements for. “The quicker the better to avoid the scandal.”  _

_ Rey bit her lip, feeling her world drop out from under her. Now or never. “Actually,” she piped up from behind the two of them, causing the pair to stop, Leia’s expression zeroing in on Rey with an intensity Rey didn’t know if she ever wanted to experience again. “I--I was thinking I’d stay at my place. For a little bit. Then we can ease into the whole mated thing.” She looked from Ben, who smiled in an almost resigned fashion, to Leia, whose expression was far less discernible. It came from years of political use, Rey was certain, but to have it leveled on her was . . . terrifying. “I mean. Then it’ll avoid any scandal--or talk!--if it looks like a more gradual thing. Not like a shotgun wedding sort of . . . thing.”  _

_ Leia at least gave her the benefit of the pause, though Rey thought she could see the moment she’d made up her mind, even with her poker face. “That’s an astute thought,” she said with a nod. “And I’m glad you’re thinking about these things, and how they look. I appreciate your understanding of just how imperative this situation is. But that is not an option at this point. I need you two to present a united front. I need this to look like an intentional romance, like you couldn’t wait to be together, so you understand why moving in is absolute. Don’t you?”  _

  
  


Rey bought two burgers, one to devour in the back of the Lincoln X-Wing, and one to shove in the fridge when they made their way back to Ben’s home.  _ Her home, _ as he’d suggested she start calling it. While Mitaka snacked on the ten piece chicken nuggets with ranch he’d decided on, and Rey glugged at least half of her Coke down with a satisfied hum, she tried not to think too hard about the conversation that she still needed to have, the lease she’d need to figure out a way to pay off for the rest of the year. The inconvenience she’d put Rose through for getting herself in such a predicament to start with. Her food turned to ash in her mouth, though Rey scarfed it down anyway, never one to waste so much as a bite when she’d grown up not knowing where the next would come from. 

She didn’t know if she was ready to have that conversation yet, though. Didn’t know if she’d ever be ready to have it, if she was being frank. Needing to get her things moved immediately or not, she wasn’t ready to just pack it all up and leave so soon. 

_ At least the sex is good _ , she mused as she sat back in her seat, cheeks heating up at the thought.  _ My life may be in limbo, but at least I’m not mated to someone who can’t get it up.  _ Wiping her mouth on one of the brown napkins provided before shoving it, and the wrapper of her now devoured Big Mac back into the brown paper bag, Rey smiled as a far more exciting, diverting idea popped into her head. There was nothing saying that she couldn’t  _ enjoy  _ the most of this relationship. If everything else was going to be taken from her sense of control, then she’d have to find other ways to exercise her will. She’d have to be creative. 

Omega or not, she wasn’t just going to let someone else take charge. 

“Hey Mitaka? Two questions.” 

He cleared his throat, looking back at her, curiosity evident. “Fire away.” 

“One: is there a Victoria’s Secret around here?” She struggled not to snicker when he nearly choked on air. “Two. What’s Ben’s favorite color?” 

  
  
  


REY: Hey, how’s our love story unfolding? 

BEN: Haha. I’ll have you know I now have an entirely new asshole, courtesy of my mother. 

REY: Kinky. 

REY: Wait. That didn’t come out the way I wanted it to. 

REY: What i meant to say is 

BEN: You’re quite articulate today, aren’t you?

REY: [Embedded image sent]

REY: You said to buy something pretty. How about I show you how articulate I can be?

BEN: I’ll be home in twenty minutes. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Content Warnings/Mild Spoilers**  
>  Power struggle between characters  
> Feelings of loss of control over aspects of life  
> Anxiety  
> Pretty Woman vibes
> 
> [Mentioned dress](https://www.bergdorfgoodman.com/p/off-white-bouroullec-spiral-satin-slip-dress-prod157910714?childItemId=BGB5H3D_&uuid=PDP_PAGINATION_cab4ecc6a16fa631d07a92612db317e2_GxH_QFL0GaAR0wXWaWt_pKSty6xGqDftdjZszbNa.jsession&page=1&position=97&navpath=cat000000_cat593903_cat589207_cat624507)   
>  [Lingerie in text/embedded image](https://www.laperla.com/us/maison-slip-cfilpd0019227-dl-rs0290.html)


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was initially going to save this update for tomorrow, but as with the other, I figured if I could offer a welcome distraction from . . . everything going on, even if only for a couple minutes, I want to do that.   
> That being said, this chapter is longer than most as we start to get into the nitty gritty of it all. Thank you, so much, to everyone for reading and reviewing. I love to see your thoughts and ideas about where the story is going, what the characters are going to do/feeling, etc. and I hope to continue to interest you and entertain you. 
> 
> As ever, please see the notes at the end for content warnings and minor spoilers. Please be sure to take care and check in with yourselves if any content you're taking in is upsetting or potentially triggering. Your mental, and physical, health are so important. Thank you!

She heard the garage door open, and with the sound of it her heart began to beat all the harder. The lace straps of the slip she’d bought kept falling off her shoulders, no matter how she managed to adjust the straps, making her look not . . . sexy, but more like a child playing dress up in something that didn’t fit them right. Fuck, what was the point of paying so much goddamn money for something if it wasn’t going to do what it was supposed to? 

Or was that what it was supposed to do? Did she look more delicate, more Omega, with the straps falling off her shoulders, looking as though she was too weak to properly hold them up? Her entire understanding of what an Omega was supposed to look like or do came from Pornhub, she wasn’t proud to admit. Before all of this had happened she’d been . . . well, curious, honestly. She’d seen it sexualized in movies, in books, discussed on raunchy talk shows, so even if at the time she didn’t think she’d ever participate, she’d wanted to at least  _ see  _ it. 

She’d avoided the major videos, Brazzers and the other overly produced videos that made her almost ill in their violence, and opted instead for something much softer, blurred out slightly around the edges as though intentionally trying to keep it as gentle as possible. The Omega there had been blonde, her eyes wide and deep brown as she stared up at the Alpha who pushed her back down onto the bed and slid into her wet heat without the use, or need given how wet she’d sounded, for foreplay. Wasn’t that still half the fun, though? 

Or were her days of anything but full-on fucking gone, now that she had a mate? 

She heard the door slam shut, pulling her from her thoughts, followed shortly by the scuffle of him toeing his shoes off at the door and sound of keys being thrown, and landing, likely somewhere in the kitchen if her brief walkthrough of his brownstone served her right. Her breath caught in her throat as she threw herself onto the bed, hoping the carpet didn’t look as though she’d worn out a path with all of her pacing. 

He was taking the stairs now, his impossible legs bringing him closer with every heartbeat. Should she be on her back? Her front? She rolled, then rolled again, grumbling in frustration as she tried to find something to do with her legs. Was spread out too obvious? Folded at the knee and in the air, crossed, too little girlish? 

Should she just be naked, no slip? The Omega in the video had been full on naked, so maybe the slip was a mistake.

And why the fuck didn’t she do anything with her hair? She tried mussing it up, just to make her look tousled, sexy, not like a homeless ragamuffin, just as he opened the door and stopped in its frame. 

She closed her legs, which had been bowed like she was sitting for circle-time in preschool, and aimed what she hoped was a coquettish smile in his direction. It felt more like a grimace. 

She bit her bottom lip and, in the breathiest voice she could manage, half-whispered: “Hey daddy.” 

_ Oh no.  _ She didn’t like that. _ Nooo no no.  _

His eyes widened, and half a beat passed before he finally broke down in a deep, belly laugh. Rey grabbed one of the pillows, the damn thing fluffier and fuller than her freaking hips, and chucked it at him. “Don’t laugh at me! I’m trying!”

“Daddy?” he wheezed, the pillow having hit him square in the shoulder as he brushed his own hair out of his face, wide lips pulled such a smile it made her stomach ache. “You dress up like  _ that _ , like the minx that you are, and you—. Rey. You’re something else. Don’t pout at me!” 

_ Too late.  _

He growled and stalked around the bed, forcing her to crawl backwards until her back hit the headboard and he’d followed after her, bracketing himself on all fours above her. “You keep doing that and I’ll give you something to pout about.” 

She huffed, and he looked like he was struggling not to laugh again. “You were gone all damn day. You told me it’d be  _ fast _ .” 

“It was fast. My mother usually holds me captive for at least forty-eight hours after I’ve been gone. She wants us over for dinner.” 

_ Still? _ Her toes curled at the thought of having the famed woman watch her eat. Nothing could be more terrifying. “Can’t it wait?” she whined. “What if I want you all to myself for the evening?” 

He arched a brow, and she smacked him with another pillow. The damn bed had too many, anyway. This one he caught, though, holding it above her head so that her hands went with it, allowing him to pin them into place and throw the pillow to the ground. Rey gulped loudly. 

“Do you?” he asked, eyes searching hers. “Want me all to yourself?” 

She held his gaze, wondering if he could tell, as close as he was, how even now her body had started to overheat with him being so near, had started to bend and readjust to acquaint herself to fit around him. “Yes,” she murmured. “Don’t you? Want me all to yourself?” 

He released her arms in favor of tugging her into his lap, and she gasped to feel him already hard against her core, her body slotted right where he wanted her. “I’ll always want you to myself, Rey. You’re mine.” 

She eased her hands to his shoulders, squeezing gently, before leaning in to kiss him. It was soft, softer than he’d have liked if the way he nipped and growled told her anything, but she pulled away when he grew too aggressive until he got the picture. 

When breathing became a near impossibility, she pulled away, staring into blown out pupils and trying not to focus on his swollen lips, knowing she must’ve looked just as equally wrecked. “Then make me yours, Ben. There’ll be time for dinner another day. Don’t share me, not tonight, because I don’t want to share you. ” 

_ That  _ did the trick. 

She tried not to focus too hard on the way that her shift caught under her weight as Ben settled overtop her, his arms propping him up, lips finding her throat and kissing down the column, nibbling at her gland until Rey was sweating through the silk.

“Is that always--going to be so sensitive?” she gasped, hands fisting in the fabric of his shirt, wanting it off of him but not wanting him to stop. 

“Maybe,” he growled with a shrug. “Varies from person to person. How strong their bond is. How often they bite one another in the, ah, throes of passion.” 

That was a nice way of putting it. She keened as he pulled away, blowing a slow stream of air against the wet spot he left. 

“Will you bite me now?” She asked, eyes hooded, watching with eagerness as he actually shook at the invitation, his eyes wide. 

“Seriously?” 

“Yeah. Why not?” 

“Ah. I mean. If you're sure.” 

She rolled her eyes. He was so dramatic. “It's a gland, Ben. Not a bomb.” 

He opened his mouth to say something, then shut it after thinking better. “As you wish. Now? Right here?”

She paused, on the brink of saying : “duh, now,” when she stopped to consider why he'd be checking. She smiled. “Almost. Wait.” With an indelicate grunt, she flipped over onto her front, presenting her ass (having dutifully forgotten underwear) and swaying it side to side gently. “Mount me, first?” 

This was what he wanted, right? This was what it’d always looked like. 

She must’ve gotten something right. The look on his face, the pure surprise and wonder that crossed his usually heavy brow, was more than worth it. He fumbled with his belt, struggling to get his pants off and past his hips, just long enough that Rey had to struggle not to giggle at his enthusiasm, glad to see he was already hard as could be and leaking a slow, steady drip of precome. 

Not that she could talk. She'd been soaking wet since she could smell him in the house. 

Now, as he lined up behind her and pressed the very tip of his cock past her folds, she was grateful for it, easing onto her elbows as he pulled her hips back to meet him. He filled every last inch of her to the brim, hissing when the globes of her ass met his abdomen. 

“You are unbelievable, you know that?” he asked, voice thick. Wrecked. “Fucking—goddammit, baby girl.” 

_ Oh _ . She liked that. Her lips parted in a hard keen as she wriggled, thoroughly impaled on him as all thoughts of putting on a show, bantering back, were lost. This was what she needed, quieting her uncertainty and discomfort from the day, the out of place, ugly duckling sensation that had haunted her steps as she'd strode down the Avenue. 

Without her having to move at all, Ben folded himself over her, chest against her spine, midday sun warm and just as comforting as he kissed along the line of her shoulder. “You're sure?” He asked again, teeth grazing just inches below where she wanted. 

She nodded. Now she had to know, and it felt—well, it felt  _ right _ , with his cock buried within her, his hips moving ever so slightly for want of extra friction. 

His lips surrounded her gland first, before his teeth came out and sank into the already abused patch of skin and nerve endings, blood pooling where his teeth passed skin. 

Shit!  _ Shit shit shit. _ Rey screamed as she came, strength leaving her as she melted like ice cream in the wake of his heat, sensation, and pleasure, her whole body throbbing as her senses were flooded by her orgasm. Ben wasn't far behind, barely managing to make it past a couple of half thrusts before his knot locked them together. Now it was all Rey could do to keep her eyes open. 

“Does that—every time?” She slurred as Ben lapped at her broken skin, sucking slowly whenever she twitched at the sensation, pins and needles shooting down her arms, legs, across her stomach. 

“Supposed to,” he rasped. 

“Good  _ God _ . I'm never getting anything done again.” 

  
  
  
  


They did end up going to Leia’s, though significantly later if all the times Ben was looking down at his watch had anything to say about that. Parting had been . . . difficult, especially since Rey hadn’t wanted to go to begin with. She’d been through enough firsts that day, and sitting down for dinner with a Senator, after having just come all over her son’s cock, was not the highest priority in her book. 

But there was no denying Leia when she wanted something, Ben had told her with an apologetic kiss to the top of her head, before he’d gone on to get showered and dressed. They’d agreed to having to do the former separately or else risk never getting anywhere on time. 

Again, not that Rey would’ve minded. If anything, it was like her body had primed her for it, constantly keeping her arousal at a low base level so that it didn’t always register, but it was there. 

As Ben drove them towards Leia’s house, outside the city and away from the bright lights, she felt his stare returning to her time and again. She frowned, turning to look at him now, watching the red light they were stuck at wash over him. 

“What’s on your mind?”

“The, ah. Daddy thing. Is that something you want?” he asked, eyebrows puckering ever so slightly. “I’ve never done that particular with a partner before, but if it’s what you want—.” 

There was no amount of foundation and cover-up, Rey thought, regardless of how expensive or fantastic coverage, that would be able to hide how red she’d become at that. “Oh. I saw that in porn. I thought that was just how—don’t laugh at me!” She reached out and smacked the hand that he’d balanced on her thigh. “Well, what else am I supposed to think? It’s not like there’s a handbook on sex for Omegas and expectations!” She paused. “I lied. It’s not like there’s a relevant book out there! Everything I found is from the fifties!”

“Rey.” The mirth was still thick in his voice, squeezing her leg as the car slid into movement once more. “I’m not laughing at you, per se. Just that you felt the need to look up—what were the key words? How to fuck like an Omega, or something?” 

She worried on her bottom lip. He didn’t get it, did he? This was all new to her. Everything. “I just. You spent so much money on me. I wanted you to . . . Get your money's worth, I suppose.” 

That shut him up. His eyes slid to her so quickly that he wasn’t paying attention to the road anymore. Rey was. 

“BEN!” she yelled, and he turned back around to swerve just in time to miss a car that’d stopped to let a passenger out. The car behind them honked in irritation, and she felt Ben’s anger vibrating off of him as he pressed his foot down on the gas to urge his car faster. 

“Ben—.” 

“Just a moment, Rey. I want to have this conversation face to face. Just—give me a moment.” 

A _ lpha is upset. You upset him, comfort him now. You need to make him feel better.  _

Rey couldn’t help the whine that choked her, her fingers digging into her knees in an effort to keep from reaching out to him, to pulling and asking him to just tell her right now what was wrong. She didn’t like waiting on the best of days, and this? This was nothing short of torture. 

She squirmed every minute of silence that was spent between the two of them, unable to stop and unsure how to best convey what it was she needed. There weren’t words for how badly she wanted to reach out and fix whatever it was she’d fucked up, but he hardly looked at her as he drove, and her brain couldn’t determine if it was because he was upset, or because he didn’t want to get them in an accident. 

_ So much for taking control of the situation, Rey.  _

They stopped in front of a veritable mansion after another twenty or so minutes of driving, the estate tucked far away from the main road, behind a gate that Ben easily tapped the code into, before he drove up to the drive to park the car. 

Only then did he turn and look at her. The intensity of his gaze, the serious set of his jaw and the way he was practically shaking himself, didn’t help her anxiety to quiet. 

_ Alpha is hurting, alpha is upset, what did you do, WHATDIDYOUDOWRONG? _

“What did--do--you mean, get my money’s worth?” he asked, having undone his belt so he could turn to stare at her. She felt her heart drop, and pulled her knees up to her chest. Or, rather, she tried; the dress Ben had helped her to pick out wouldn’t give enough to let her fold together the way she’d wanted. She instead stared down at her lap. 

“I. You.  _ Ben— _ .” Her face burned again. “I don’t know what I’m doing. I know we’ve established this, but at the same time I don’t feel like I can explain it enough. This whole situation, it’s entirely new to me. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do, and you’ve spent so much on me. Between the weekend, and the card for shopping. I just.” She struggled to keep her emotions from choking her, her panic already making the words near impossible to get out. Set that against the way she could feel him staring at her, the sharp intake of his breath, and she wasn’t sure how she was going to get through the rest of their evening, saying nothing about the rest of their life together. 

“I didn’t want to disappoint you. I want you to have the Omega you—you paid for. You  _ got _ .” 

She jumped when his fist collided with the side of his car door, very nearly denting what was inevitably very expensive, well maintained leather. Her eyes turned to him, horrified, as the stench of his utter anguish filled the space between them. “I didn’t. You are not paid for, Rey. You owe me nothing.  _ Fuck _ . Is that how you feel about this situation? About our being together; that I’ve paid for you like you’re some mail order bride or some shit?” 

She trembled, unable to help it in the wake of his words, not sure that she wanted to answer him. She didn’t, she chewed instead on the inside of her cheek and turned her gaze to the side, blinking quickly to keep from letting tears spill over her eyes and ruin her mascara. 

_ “Answer me.” _

There came the weight again, the impulse to immediately roll over and offer her throat and belly up to him, and she had barely muffled her grunt of surprise before she found her mouth opening to speak. “ _ Yes _ . How else am I supposed to feel? You bring me back to meet your mother who starts talking about this as a  _ problem _ , something that you screwed up, and then you send me off to get a whole new wardrobe. Ben I’m fucking  _ poor _ , how else is this supposed to feel? I thought that if your expectations for your Omega bride were being met then you wouldn’t feel saddled with . . . a wasted investment.” 

Her voice broke on the last word, and she felt a couple of tears slip down her face, before her hands scrambled to find the door handle and flung it open. She needed to get out, needed to get away from the smell of his disappointment and anger, needed to clear her head—. Her legs were coltish as she struggled to walk in the smaller heels strapped to her feet, wiping as delicately under her eyes as she could to try and keep from making a mess of herself. 

She heard his door open and shut as well, heard his heavy footsteps, and had just turned around to tell him to fuck off when he wrapped his arms around her and crushed her body to his. 

Now she cried. Now she sobbed, vanity forgotten, not caring that she was getting mascara on his suit jacket that probably cost more than her apartment’s rent, hands fisting in the fabric as he held her tight. 

“You are not a wasted investment, or a purchase. You are not a problem. You are an unexpected change, and I know I am too. We’ll get through this.” He kissed the top of her head. “You’re my mate, Rey.” 

She hardly heard him, though. “You used the voice again.” She looked up at him, shoving at his chest. “I told you I don’t like that. I don’t want you to use it.” 

His brows knit together. “Would you have told me what was wrong if I hadn’t?” 

_ No _ . “It doesn’t matter. I don’t want to be controlled, Ben. It just makes this worse—.” 

A voice cleared from behind them, and Ben stiffened at the sound of it, shielding Rey from sight as he turned to look back at whoever it was that’d finally made their way out to see them. 

“You two okay?” 

“Fine, dad. We’ll be in in a moment.” 

There was a moment of stillness, silence broken only by a deep breath, then. “She doesn’t smell fine. She smells like you’re upsetting her.” 

Rey blinked rapidly, and peered over the side of Ben’s shoulder. Han Solo was taller than her posters of him made him look, and even in his age he carried himself with dignity. “I’m okay,” she warbled. “Just . . . lover’s quarrel.” She didn’t know how much his father knew, how much Leia or Ben may have told him. 

Han’s face hardened for the briefest of moments, before he folded his arms over his chest, not looking as though he believed it for a second. But as Rey’s panic receded, and Ben offered her a small handkerchief to dab at her face with, he seemed to be satisfied. “I see. Well. Best come inside when you’re ready. I’m hungry, and you know your mom won’t start till everyone’s here.” 

Ben hummed, nodding, though he didn’t turn around to look at his father, and didn't relax until it was just the two of them and the sound of the door closing behind Han Solo. “Can we—I don’t want this conversation to be over,” he said after a moment. “But I don’t want to have Leia come out looking for us next. Are you okay?” 

She wasn’t sure it was even an option to not be okay. “Yes.” She nodded, and offered him back the handkerchief. He took it from her hand, before turning it over and pressing his lips to the back of her hand, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. 

“Let’s go see my mother, then. The sooner we get in, the sooner we can go back home.” 

At this point, Rey didn’t know which she dreaded more. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ****  
> Knotting/Mating Bites  
>  Power Imbalance/Power Play  
> Near Car Accident (no injuries)  
> Use of Alpha Voice/Poor Alpha Behavior  
> Controlling/Domineering behavior
> 
> [Rey's Dress](https://www.saksfifthavenue.com/herve-leger-icon-mini-dress/product/0400012196606?FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374306422146&R=613000797612&P_name=Herve+Leger&N=306422146+4294876715+4294901535&bmUID=n9uN_7Y)


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone, hope this finds you well. Apologies for the late chapter update; this is definitely unbeta'd. Just finished it . . . twenty minutes ago? But I wanted to get an update out.   
> Thank you all so much for your support and your comments! You're all so amazing, I really appreciate it and they're keeping me going. 
> 
> Again, check below for any content warnings/mild spoilers

Before they’d gotten to the dining room to greet the rest of Ben’s family, Rey excused herself to the small bathroom pointed out as soon as they’d stepped inside. Her eyes were slightly bloodshot, but not terrible, and though her lips were plump from where she’d bitten them to near shreds at least they didn’t look torn. With a shaky inhale, she fished the small tube of mascara from her purse and applied another layer, using a soft towel and cold water to clean off the rest of her face. They’d have to deal with her bare face; she hadn’t exactly expected to cry off most of her foundation. 

_ “You’re not a wasted investment. You’re my mate.” _

So why didn’t she feel like it except when they were in the bedroom? There was chemistry, absolutely, and she knew that of course they’d gone too fast for there to be a strong foundation . . . but it didn’t stop the feeling of unease and shakiness that Rey had come to associate with their lives over the past . . . Three days? 

Three days, and mated. Three days since she’d discovered she was an Omega. Was it any wonder that her body was all over the place?

There came a quiet knock on the door. “Rey?” 

Of everyone it could have been, Leia Organa was not who Rey had expected. Let alone to ask to come in, like they were equals. 

“Be out in just a second,” Rey assured her, glad that her voice didn’t warble when she spoke. She took a slow, deep breath in, and another out, before extricating herself from the bathroom, determinedly pasting a smile on her lips that Leia frowned to see when she stepped out. 

“What happened?” The older woman asked, her eyes far more understanding and seeing than Rey was comfortable with. If their first meeting was anything to go off of, she knew Leia wouldn't be someone that she could easily put off, and that only made Rey's pulse pound a little harder. 

“Just a discussion that Ben and I need to have when we get back home,” she said. “It’s—.”

“A lover’s quarrel?” Leia finished, eyebrows rising. 

Rey's face flushed. “Nothing escapes you, does it?” She asked, tone perhaps more biting than it ought to have been. “Did you overhear it, or was your husband all too keen to fill you in?” 

To her credit, Leia’s face remained impassive. “Han told me he thought it was bullshit and that you were upset. Don't tell me what it looks like, tell me what it is; I came to see what could be done.” 

Did she, though? Rey gnawed away what color was left on her bottom lip, mind racing, wanting desperately to talk but not sure how to begin having this conversation. Whether Leia was even the person she should be talking with. She needed to speak with Ben, but he hadn't come after her.

“You're sure we have time?” Rey asked, offering the smallest of smiles, trying for levity.

The woman didn't budge, and she didn't rush Rey, so maybe there was some honesty to her words after all. Breathing deeply, Rey leaned slowly against the wall just behind her, meeting Leia’s gaze with some difficulty, but holding it all the same. “How did you hear about Ben and my situation?” She asked finally. 

Leia paused, wetting her lips and bringing her hands to clasp in front of her. “He sent me a text the night it happened, explaining that he had mated with an Omega by accident. Is that correct?”

Rey nodded, wondering why she wasn't surprised that Leia would have known so soon. “And did he tell you that, up until that moment, I had believed myself to be a Beta?” 

Leia inhaled deeply, frowning. “Were you on blockers? Any medication since you were little that you'd never questioned?” 

Rey shook her head. “No. I was in the foster system for the majority of my life. No one gave enough of a shit to get me checked out more than absolutely necessary.” She paused. “Pardon my language.” 

She thought she saw Leia's face soften. “No need to worry. Ben was cursing years before he should’ve been thanks to his father and I. Never did learn how to hold my tongue outside of the Senate floor.” Here she offered a small smile. “Or on it. But yes, he did tell me that it was a surprise to you both. And that it’d been in the throes of passion that you both bit each other’s mating glands. Is that also true?” Leia stepped closer, putting a hand on Rey’s own and squeezing. 

Rey nodded, and she saw Leia relax, if only slightly. 

“I see.” 

“I didn’t mean to. I don’t think he did, either. But it just happened so fast and—. Then we were coming back here. And I don’t know—I don’t know what I’m doing, Leia. I’m an undergrad, not some socialite’s wife. And that’s a whole other thing—.” She felt her breathing start to get quick, felt the same panic that had been ballooning in her chest begin to expand until it pressed at her seams, desperate to get out, choking her. She didn’t know how to make it stop, felt her head start spinning as she tried to take a step back, only pressing herself more against the door—. 

“Rey. Rey, focus on me. Focus on my voice.” 

Rey’s eyes, which had been skittering the floor, found Leia’s. Though she wasn’t using the Voice the way that Ben had been, there was something compelling about her gaze, something that made Rey want to do as she asked. Leia’s breathing grew exaggerated, deepening as she urged Rey to follow suit, clapping her hands over Rey’s wrists to feel her pulse, allowing Rey to do the same. 

Following the same, deep breathing patterns as the woman in front of her, Rey felt herself start to come back. To center. Each breath grew a little easier than the previous, and before she knew it she was blinking back unexpected tears as she squeezed Leia’s wrists tightly. 

The Alpha in front of her smiled, though there was nothing patronizing about it. Just warm, comforting. 

She saw now why she made such a great Senator. 

“I never had panic attacks like this until I presented,” Rey murmured, neither one of them letting go of the other. “I didn’t—is this going to be a forever thing?” 

Leia shook her head. “Luke had them a lot, too, when he first presented. Your body is struggling to acclimate itself, to get used to a new state of being. You’ve by now already started hearing a new internal monologue, haven’t you?” 

Rey nodded, not trusting herself entirely to speak. All too well, and she was not a happy camper about it. 

“Your body is trying to come to a sense of stasis, of a new normal so to speak. Once you adjust it’ll get easier, but it’s . . . just part of your makeup. The way that it’s part of ours to help comfort you, and vice versa. Has Ben ever lashed out around you?”

Rey’s body tightened and Leia frowned at that. “I see. He’s got a temper, even for an Alpha. Never was able to curb it entirely. Undoubtedly, as soon as he did, your mind took it upon itself to wonder what it was you did wrong. Didn’t it?” 

Rey wet her lips. “I—I felt like I’d fucked up, and it was like no matter how I tried to justify my actions, it all came back around to me. Not soothing him.” 

“We’re meant to be complementary to one another. Two halves of a whole. A dyad.” Leia brought their hands together, her smaller ones framing Rey’s. “And unfortunately your body is going through not just the readjustments of being an Omega, but also to being a Mated pair. It’s going to be overwhelming. I’ll speak with Ben about needing to be more careful.” 

Rey felt her heart leap, and even offered Leia a small, watery smile. “I appreciate it. Do you think—knowing that. Do you think it’s a good idea to have us stay in the same house? Shouldn’t, for readjusting and getting used to it, I stay—.” 

Leia sighed heavily and shook her head, patting Rey’s hands gently. “I’m afraid that’s still not an option, my dear. But we’ll be careful, and take it slow.” 

A little late for that, Rey thought, as Leia led her by the elbow into the dining room, where Han and Ben had already taken their seats. Ben stood as soon as they entered, while Han remained seated and took a quick sip from the glass of what looked like whiskey in his hand. 

“You okay, kid?” he asked Rey as she took her seat, not meeting Ben’s gaze. Not just yet. 

“Yeah,” she said with a small smile. “I’ll be okay. Thank you.” 

As though there were any other option at this point. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Content Warnings/Mild Spoilers**  
>  Worries about non-con behavior  
> Tensions between character wants/needs  
> Mentions of panic attacks/working through it


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello all! I hope this update finds you well. Thank you, as ever for your support and for reading. I'll keep this short and sweet so I don't take up much of your time. Shout out to Poet for taking a look at this: you're the best.  
> As ever, content warnings/mild spoilers below! Thanks!

Rey was poured a glass of wine and a glass of water, and it took everything she had not to down the first in a single guzzle as the chatter turned easily to politics, the latest polling numbers, the news from the Battered Women’s shelter that Leia had recently started donating her time and money to. It was a noble cause, of course, but given the way Han’s eyes glazed over halfway through their first course, she had to wonder just whether or not he ever engaged. 

So she waited for a lull in conversation before blurting out: “Is it true you still have the Millenium Falcon? The one you set the record with in ‘78?” 

If there could've been a record screech, it would've been then. Ben nearly choked on his sip of water, and Rey watched as Han’s face split into a grin.

“You a fan of F1?” 

“I had a foster father who had all the races taped. I'd watch them when they went out for the night.” And have to put them all back before they had returned, or else risk getting smacked for touching his things. “She was a real beast.”

“Tell me about it. They don’t make them like that anymore.” Han smiled broadly, and with it Rey felt her own heart start to slow down and beat anew, taking solace in the fact that even if Leia and Ben thought she'd grown another head, at least she has one friend. “After dinner I'll show her to you.” 

Rey felt her eyes grow wide, and her mouth fell open in a wide grin. “Seriously?” 

“Hell yeah. At least someone respects the classics around here. Not that new shit—.”

Ben's hands tightened and Leia sighed, rubbing her temples. “One dinner without you two getting into it. Just one.” 

Han smirked as he winked at Rey, and raised his glass as in salute. “O-kay! But no more politics. No more work. You keep boring both of us to tears, then I'm not responsible for the trouble I stir up. And I think I've got a new partner in crime to join me.” 

There was no missing the look that Ben shot Rey’s way when she laughed quietly, but oh, she tried. 

The stilted silence that followed afterwards was, if anything, even more awkward, Rey having finished off her plate of food well before everyone else, even as she’d tried to slow down. It wasn’t as though a salad was going to really fill her up. Ben reached over and took her hand in his, squeezing gently. “Rey here is a student at Challandria,’ he said, looking over at his father. “And studies engineering.” 

She blinked at him, a little surprised that he remembered but also taken aback. Was that supposed to be her cue? She coughed a little in surprise, but nodded as Han’s interested attention fell on her. “Yeah. Ah, actually I was inspired by watching the F1 races when I was younger. One of the homes that I was in was, well, more of a junkyard than an actual house. The man who ran it used to use me to wiggle into tighter places than he could get on the cars that’d get dropped off. One time he got a Monster truck, and I could fit into the entire engine compartment.” 

Her bright, amused smile wasn’t shared by Leia or Ben, who both looked horrified, while Han just snickered. 

“How old were you?” Han asked, sitting back in his seat and pushing away his hardly touched salad. 

“Six . . . Or seven. I was only there for a few years before eventually one of my teachers realized the reason I came in with grease stains and random cuts and bruises.”

Ben’s hand tightened on hers, nearly to the point of pain, but more than anything she could smell the difference as it wafted over him. Leia, sitting closest to him aside from Rey, pulled a face. 

“Lord, Ben. She’s not being treated that way now,” she said, shaking her head, though she didn’t look perhaps as upset as she could have but rather almost . . . pleased at his reaction. 

There was a small piece of Rey, buried deep, deep down, that felt the same. 

  
  
  


True to his word, Han offered Rey a tour of the garage as soon as dinner had been cleared from their plates, Rey’s stomach feeling pleasantly distended and her head spinning just a little from the wine, her glass never having gone empty. She looked behind to see if Ben was going to be coming with her, even though it was obviously a point of contention between the two, but he’d already retreated with his mother into another room to talk work. 

“Don’t be too surprised, kid,” Han told her, catching her glance behind them. “They’ve both seen this so many times they could probably give you a tour themselves. They just don’t ever offer.”

She was pretty sure she could understand why once he opened the door and ushered her out into the garage, if they could call it that. It was huge, filled from top to bottom with paraphernalia and the most exquisite cars she’d seen in her life. Her tongue very nearly lolled out of her mouth as they stepped up to the Falcon, and Han ran his hand over her hood with an affectionate smile on his lips. 

“I used to joke that this car was the love of my life, even after I met and married Leia. It’d always get a chuckle, but, well, it’s always felt to me like an extension of myself.”

Rey nodded her understanding, walking around it and trying not to focus on the way her heels clicked on the cement flooring. “I can see why. She’d been with you through everything. You bought her right out, yeah? That was what got you noticed; you came around, driving this car that’d failed so many other tests and yet seemed so perfectly suited for the race. You’d tinkered, but not illegally, and you still were able to leave everyone else in the dust in spite of her model having been at least ten years old.” 

Han’s expression warmed, turning curious and almost pensive. “You are a fan then. Where’d you learn that all?” 

“I managed to scavenge your autobiography from the junkyard as well.” 

He gave a snort of understanding, as though that solved everything, and he watched as she practically vibrated with excitement. If she’d felt pumped about Ben’s car, it was nothing in comparison to how her heart pounded at the sight of the Falcon in front of her. “Well, maybe when it’s nice enough outside I’ll let you take her for a spin out back. We've got a small racing ring. Spent most of my time there, even after I’d retired.” He motioned to the window, where she could see, in the distance, the beginnings of a track. 

Her heart hammered a little harder. “I’d love that,” she assured him, her eyes wide and her lips curling in a wide grin. “Really. Thank you, Han.” 

He shrugged it off, stepping around to the next artifact, an old X-Wing, one of the original models. If she remembered correctly, it’d been his back up car once F1 had gotten too dangerous but he refused to stop racing. 

“Which one did you teach Ben to drive when he was growing up?” Rey asked, her grin so wide she missed the way his expression faltered at the mention. “I’m sure he was probably chomping at the bit to get the Falcon out and going. Must’ve made picking up girls easier—,” she finally saw his frown. “What? What’s wrong?”

She stepped closer, and Han shook his head, waving her off with a small smile. “Oh. Nothing. Nothing at all. No, Ben didn’t learn to drive any of these, though I’ve no clue where he learned to drive stick.” 

_ Oh _ . That was a little weird. Her smile faltered if only slightly. “I . . . see. What did he practice with?” 

“His mother’s Civic Cruiser. She said it was much safer, and by the time he got old enough to have his own car, he—well. He hadn’t been in the Falcon with me since he was little. Too little, really, to be in the car, let alone perched on my knee. By the time he was old enough, he said that he only saw them as a bunch of old cars that made his father go away..” Han let out a little huff. “Rightfully so.”

That . . . didn’t seem right. Didn’t seem possible. She could sense the animosity between the two of them, father and son, of course. Even blind, she’d have been able to feel the way his body grew tense whenever Han spoke, how his teeth ground together as the topic turned to something he was clearly not eager to listen to or discuss, even though he’d brought it up as a way for Rey to introduce herself to the family. 

“I see,” she said again, this time with a nod, even as Han looked away, his hands on his hips, staring out at nothing in particular. “Well. Maybe you should offer to take him driving in one. Just to see.” 

Han was saved from having to find an answer by Ben coming in to steal Rey away, asking if she was ready to go. Oddly enough, she found that she was. They had a lot to discuss, anyway, and this had given her some food for thought. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Content Warnings/Mild Spoilers**  
>  Mentions of child abuse/poor childcare in foster system  
> Mentions of unpaid child labor


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey there everyone, I hope this finds you well in these bizarre times. Thank you so much for your continued readership and for commenting, kudoing, and bookmarking; it really means a lot that you're enjoying the story so much. This has developed . . . far more than I'd initially expected, and all of your ideas and questions and thoughts are helping me to further develop and really enjoy creating this. So thank you a million from the very bottom of my heart!
> 
> Also how in the heck did we get over 1k kudos?! This is wild.. You are all incredible
> 
> Any content warnings/mild spoilers in the end notes. Lots of love.

They barely talked all the way back to the house, though Ben’s hand came to rest on Rey’s knee, and Rey thought it was easier to let it stay than to start up a conversation about it, to ask if he really thought that everything was just . . . fine again. If it could even have been called fine for the last seventy-two hours they were together. She wasn’t sure what sort of label their particular brand of crazy required. 

She was certain, as she stepped through the door and nearly ripped off her feet trying to remove her shoes so she could stand, flat footed, on the hardwood floor, that she was already sick of wearing heels. When she stood up, she caught Ben flushing, very clearly having been staring at her ass in her dress as she’d bent over. 

She didn’t have the strength to be mad about it. “How come you never drove the Falcon?” she asked, padding away from the entrance to get herself a glass of water from the kitchen, fumbling around in the cabinets before she managed to locate a cup. At least getting water from the fridge wasn’t so unmanageable. 

Ben, who’d followed shortly after her, frowned, undoing the tie he’d opted for with nimble, practiced fingers. “I don’t know,” he said after a moment. “Just. That’s always been Dad’s car. Not really my place to go about and ask him for permission when I’ve got one myself.” 

“Before. Ever. He said you’ve never wanted to.” 

She turned just in time to see something flit over Ben’s face, and if she hadn’t been paying attention she might have missed the frustration that made his brow twitch, before he smoothed his expressions and eased his tie off. “Are you avoiding the conversation you know we need to be having?”

Rey arched a brow. “Are _you_ ignoring _my_ question for a conversation _you’d_ rather be having?” 

He opened his mouth, and she watched, sipping her water, as he silently closed it again. Cleared his throat. 

Thank goodness.

“Most of my memories of that car aren’t pleasant. I expect you’ve gathered that Han is attached to anything and everything that goes hand in hand with the glory days?”

Rey nodded. It would’ve been easy to see even if she hadn’t been to visit the garage; he housed his own private museum of his accomplishments and accolades and practically glowed when he spoke. 

“The car was, well. I think it held more for him than anything else. If he hadn’t raced the Falcon he wouldn’t be successful.. When he and mom would get into fights he’d take off, and we wouldn’t see him until he was on television.” He ran a hand through his hair, and his gaze was a million miles away. The scratch that Rey had given him was still healing, an angry red line that made him look more rugged and dangerous, even in as nice of a suit as he’d picked for his mother’s. 

_ You did that. You marked him; he’s yours _ . 

He sighed heavily before continuing, pulling her from her desire to press her fingers to the mark, to feel the seams of him and hold him together with her own two hands. “I remember getting so scared, knowing that if that was ever his last moment, if he took a turn wrong, or something happened to the Falcon or another nearby car, I’d never get the chance to—to do anything about it.” 

She watched as he took a step closer, as though to move towards her, before stopping.

Rey closed the rest of the distance, setting her glass down on the island as she wrapped her arms around his waist and let him rest his chin on the top of her head. 

His heavy exhale sound ragged and familiar in its exasperation and sorrow. “It’s a car. And he picked that over his family because it was  _ easy _ . I have a hard time wanting to be any part of it.” 

“Did you ever talk to him about this?” she asked after a moment, hands snaking underneath the fabric of his jacket, pulling his tucked shirt out from his pants so she could put her hands on his skin, needing to feel him beneath her. Wanting him to know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that she was there. She was with him. 

Probably another thing to blame on the hormones. As Leia said, they were a pair, and she wanted . . . well, he was in distress.The effect was immediate, his body relaxing as though given the permission to be at ease for the first time all evening. 

He shook his head. “Just a therapist when I was younger. Ten or so years ago. I went through a real rough patch and just—snapped. Mom insisted I get help, and eventually it stopped becoming my choice.” 

She looked up at that, horror dawning on her face as she tried to piece together what he meant by that. She opened her mouth, a million questions tripping up her tongue at once, before he shook his head again. “I don’t . . . I will talk about it with you. But not tonight. I don’t have the energy.” 

She shut her mouth again, but nodded. “I can respect that.” 

He smiled, visible relief breaking over his face, before he leaned down to kiss her. Her anger, her disbelief, from earlier that evening melted under the heat of his mouth on hers, the familiar pressure that already she was beginning to crave as her body reacted to him pulling her closer, seating his hands on her hips and squeezing. 

  
  
  


Rey awoke with a start to the sound of “Kill This Love” blaring from the other side of a room that was way too big to be her own, her head spinning, a warm arm clutching her tight to an even warmer chest as she felt Ben’s groan against her back. 

“The fuck is that?” he asked around a yawn as Rey scrambled to get out of bed. 

“Rose’s favorite song—shit fuck damn,” she swore, hopping around the room, naked as the day she was born as she rifled through the dress that’d barely come off of her in one piece last night, and the articles of Ben’s clothes that’d followed not long after. 

The song ended, and started again almost immediately, bringing Rey to curse all the more as she turned her attention to the wall, where her device had clearly fallen between the cracks of the dresser and wall behind it. “Fuuuck I’m in such trouble.” 

“Trouble?” Ben yawned again. “Need me to fight someone?” 

Rey scowled as she finally grabbed her phone, grimacing as she wiped cobwebs off of it and finally, mercifully, unlocked it. 

She took a deep breath before forcing herself to smile. “Rosie?” 

“Oh thank  _ God  _ you’re not dead, Rey. I’m gonna kill you myself.” 

  
  
  


Rose stared at Rey from across their makeshift kitchen table, and not for the first time since Rey had stepped back into their apartment did she wish that she could disappear. She hadn’t been able to miss the way that Rose’s eyes had lit on her throat, on the still healing bite that Ben had nibbled and kissed in an effort to calm her down as she’d gotten chewed out for barely having texted, let alone not having come home. She deserved it, of course. She deserved a whole hell of a lot worse. Now, however, Rose just stared, her lips pressed together in a thin line as she clearly tried to dissect what it was Rey had just explained. The story, the chase. The money. 

The moving, Rey needing to leave their small apartment. She offered to pay the rest of the year’s rent for the both of them, now that she could afford it, but Rose had scowled at the idea and waved it off. 

“I’m not worried about that,” she muttered with a shake of her head. “I’m worried about you. You don’t . . . look thrilled about it all.” 

Then came the silence, Rey’s mind trying to find words to put together just what she felt, but honestly? She didn’t know anymore. She wet her lips, turning her head to look out the other side of the kitchen, watching as the city moved and spun on around them. Not that long ago she’d sat here and wondered how she was going to afford the remainder of her tuition, now she wondered if her problems would ever be so cut and dried as that again. 

“I don’t know how to feel, Rose,” she said after another couple minutes of quiet. Rose shifted closer at her words. “I’m . . . I’m fucking terrified. Truly. I don’t know what I’m doing, I don’t even know who he is. I know his mother, his father. But Ben? Is he the guy that took me into the woods to play out some Alpha fantasy, or is he this paper perfect Senator’s son who volunteers at battered women’s shelters and makes big fucking donations to charity? Who can’t have a scandal or else risk losing Leia her job?” 

Rey brought her hand to her mouth, teeth digging into the soft nails that she had been trying so hard to cultivate and let grow out. She didn’t notice, until she winced when pain lanced through the tip of her forefinger, that she’d subconsciously already made short work of it. 

Rose’s attention moved to Rey’s hand and she frowned. “Stop chewing your nails,” she said softly. “Have you told Ben this? That you’re scared?”

It took all Rey had to let her hand fall back onto the table’s surface. “No.” 

“Why not?” 

Rey felt her throat flush. “We, ah. Haven’t really had time.” 

Rose’s eyebrows shot upwards. “And being knotted together twice--I’m guessing at  _ least  _ twice--hasn’t offered you the opportunity.” 

“Rose!” Rey found herself grinning, though more out of shock that her roommate had actually said that. 

“Oh c’mon! Like I’m wrong.” 

She wasn’t, and that perhaps was what made Rey all the more uncomfortable. “It just—that doesn’t really feel like the right time to have that conversation.” 

Now Rose looked skeptical, shaking her head and draining the rest of her glass of wine, a bottle of moscato they’d had chilling since they moved in together. It’d felt apt, when Rose had offered to crack it open, that now they’d actually sit down and drink it. 

“Rey. Right time or not, you’ve gotta have it. Might as well get it over with and stop internalizing everything.” 

Rey didn’t answer, taking a long pull of her own drink. 

Rose, taking her roommate’s silence as a confirmation that she was right, sat back in her chair. “Well. I guess now is as good a time as ever to tell you that Finn was talking about us moving in together at the end of the year. So, that worked out.” 

Rey’s squeal of congratulations made Rose grin. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Content Warnings/Mild Spoilers**  
>  Mentions of parental abandonment  
> Implied Family Problems  
> Mention of mental breakdown/snap, though details are not provided  
> Mentioned previous minor violence


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey there everyone! I hope this continues to find you well. Thank you, as ever, for your continued readership and for commenting; it helps me to find the motivation where there isn't always any, especially when things get hectic.   
> That being said, I am going to take the rest of this week, and the following week, off from updating and try and focus a little more on figuring out where I was this story to go. Something I noticed, as I worked on this chapter, is that I feel as though there are disjointed sections and characterizations, and I want to hone in on them before it becomes a problem; I'm having a hard time focusing on doing that when I'm so eager to get the next one out. My enthusiasm tends to bite me in the ass in that way! 
> 
> As ever, please see the notes at the bottom of the chapter for content warnings and possible spoilers. Thanks again!

Though Ben’s original offer had been for someone else to move Rey’s things out of her apartment, she opted to do it with Rose’s help, the pair chattering happily about the latest season of Bachelor as they packed up Rey’s few belongings and packed them into Rose’s old van. It gave Rose an excuse to go see what was to be Rey’s new home, and gave Rey an excuse to consider her best friend’s suggestions without having to confront the realities of what she knew she had to do just yet. Besides, as Rey was fast finding out, scents were now becoming a Thing, and it was wonderful to bask in a room that was so much her own, that held her things, her sheets, blankets, sweaters, all smelling like her. Sure, Ben smelled amazing, there was no way she could deny that, but surrounded by all her own possessions was grounding in a way that she hadn’t realized it could be. Familiar. Known. 

“So, what  _ is  _ it like to take a knot?” 

And there went her peace of mind. Rey flushed as she looked over at Rose, who was grinning as she packed what few books Rey had kept, enjoying them enough that not even the temptation of buy-back money could make her part with them. 

“Really?” Rey half choked, throwing the rest of her paltry underwear selection onto the already stuffed box, and forcing the lid onto it. 

“It’s not like I’ll ever know! Unless being a surprise Omega is a Thing that science has just discovered. You could write a book and be the first to come out!” 

Write a book about running through the forest, being paid to present herself like prey to the son of the ineffable Leia Organa-Skywalker? 

Noo. No way. Rey snorted at the thought of it. “Yeah. Not gonna happen. I don’t know how common it is, but if so then I hope Finn’s a surprise Alpha.” 

Rose’s eyes glazed over for the briefest moments before the pillow Rey chucked at her knocked the sense back into her. “Yeah, no thanks. I don’t need any of that macho posturing bullshit.” 

Rey just snickered. 

  
  
  


Rose grew increasingly silent as Rey navigated them back to Ben’s home, her mouth actually falling open as they pulled into the drive, and Ben smiled from where he stood in the garage. He’d clearly just finished a run, sweat pasting his black hair to his forehead, the grey t-shirt he’d donned (why, Rey had no idea, though deep down there was a thrum of pleasure that no one else but her got to see him like that) absolutely drenched in sweat. 

“He’s built like a fucking refrigerator,” Rose said, looking over at Rey. “You do realize you probably look like you’re a child in comparison to him. Right?” 

Rey shoved her, before getting out to start unpacking their things. “Harsh.” 

“I’m just saying!” Rose’s voice followed her, even as she got out herself and stepped around to the back of the van, picking up a box. “ _ I’d  _ look like a child. Goddamn.” 

Ben met her at the door with a quick kiss, easily sliding the box from Rey’s arms into his own. She could feel relief pouring off of him like steam, like heat. Had he been worried she might not come back? Rey felt her chest tighten. 

“You get everything, or do you need to make another trip?” 

Rey shook her head. “No, I don’t have much. Ah, wanna bring that to my room? I’ll just sort it out later.” And probably find that she needed to donate the majority of it. 

He nodded, shooting Rose a quick smile before jerking his head in the direction of the door. “I’m Ben, c’mon in and I’ll show you where we’re setting this all down. Rey can give you a tour afterwards.” 

Rose’s eyebrows shot up, her lips forming the words “a tour?” before dutifully following where Ben disappeared. 

Rey had to take a moment to collect herself without the pair of them to witness, breathing deeply as she picked up another box from the back, and pressed her forehead to it. A tour. She was the lady of the house, now, after all. 

  
  
  


The room that they'd decided would be hers needed a new coat of paint, something other than the mauve and brown combination that looked like it was inspired by the late 1800s. What it lacked in style it more than more up for in size, easily larger than her and Rose’s living room and kitchen combined. Rose whistled as she stood in the center, grinning at the vaulted ceilings and hardwood floor. “Well. If things don't work out with Finn and I living together I'm going to move in with you.” 

Rey smiled as she set her own box down. It was surreal to even think about having a room all of her own, and not even having to sleep in it, though she thought she might still want to get a pull out couch. Just in case; after all, she could actually have guests over now. The multi-paneled windows overlooked their small back yard, where Ben had a grill and patio set, hidden away by the enormous trees that lined the property, and if she squinted she could see into their neighbor’s house. She made a mental note to buy curtains once she figured out a color scheme and paint. 

Ben came in with the last of the boxes, three of them stacked high, arms bulging as he peered around the side and set them down to Rey’s right. Her eyes dragged on the curve of his biceps, the way his ass filled out his shorts like they were made for him. 

Just behind her, Rose sniffed, then sneezed, staring at Rey with a look of shock. “I, ah. I actually think I’ll get the tour another day, if that’s okay.” She was hiding a wide smile, Rey could tell, the way that the corners of her eyes had started to crinkle and she was fighting to keep from showing her teeth in a grin. “You look like you’ve got a lot of unfucking—unpacking to do. So I’ll leave you to it. Yeah?” 

Before Rey could think of saying anything else, Rose shot her a wink, waved goodbye to Ben, now standing straight once more, and sped out the door and down the stairs. She heard a low whistle from the bottom floor, before the garage door shut behind Rose, and the two of them were alone. 

The flush already working up Rey’s chest and neck only grew worse when Ben leveled his gaze on her. “You, ah. You feeling okay?” he asked, lips curving into a slow smile as Rey pressed her legs together, trying not to salivate as he folded his arms over his chest. 

No. Maybe? She didn't know any more. “Is it always going to be like this?” She stepped forward, placing a hand gingerly on his elbow. 

He unfolded his arms to take her hand, threading their fingers together. “Always like… what?” 

“I see you and it's like, my mind wipes out completely. Like I'm at an entire loss and all that matters is running my tongue over every last inch of you.” She felt her flush deepen, and watched as his eyes darkened slightly, but he kept quiet. “I'm just—I’m confused.” 

“So’m I,” he said after a moment. “But we’ll get through this. We're in it together, right?” 

She nodded. “Right. It's just all moving so fast.” 

He hummed in agreement, pulling her gently closer until she was wrapped in his arms, tucking her face in the crook of his neck. “I think it's all going to feel weird for a while, and then eventually it'll start to feel like normal, once we get used to it. Right? We just have to navigate the situation as it happens together.” 

Was that it? Was that all they had to do, just weather the storm as it happened and then . . . And then what? What was normal? She grew quiet, wetting her bottom lip as she felt her mind circle over and over the question she wanted most to know, and feared all at the same time. “Ben. Did you even want to be mated?” She didn't look up at him, didn't need to as she felt him go tense, as she felt him breathe deeply, hold it, then release again. “You picked me because I'm a --because I was a Beta. Because you didn't want to run the risk of biting and knotting. And I understand that, given the situation, you might not have wanted to be mated to whoever it was fulfilling your fantasy—. But at all. Did you want it at all?” 

He didn’t say anything, and every inhale he took, only to be followed by a heavy exhale, made her stomach tense up a little more. Made her shoulders a little more tight. 

“I’m sorry,” she said, when the silence became too much to stand. “That it happened. That I bit you back, that you’re in this, too.” Talking was getting difficult, and she chewed on the inside of her cheek to give herself something else to focus on, a new sort of pain, as she made to pull out of his grip. His arms tightened around her, keeping her in place. 

“Ben, let me go.” 

“No.” 

Her heart plummeted. “Ben. Let me go.”

The arm around her waist anchored her in place, even as she tried to wriggle free, while his right hand took her chin and tilted her face upwards. “Don’t say that,” he finally muttered. “Don’t apologize, because there’s nothing to apologize for. You didn’t know, I didn’t know. There’s no point in being upset about it, because we’re here now. It’s done. And like I said we’ll get through it.” 

Would they? For once she felt like she couldn’t read him, searching his eyes, trying to find sincerity or at least honesty, unsure how he could be so certain when there was nothing assured about their relationship, about the rest of their lives together. 

All she found was resignation, and stubborn determination in the set of his jaw, and she wasn’t sure which was worse. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Content Warnings/Mild Spoilers**  
>  Uncertainty/being held against their will (asking to be released but not being released)  
> Lack of communication between characters.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again everyone! Thank you so much for your patience with me, it's greatly appreciated. I hope this chapter makes up for the absence. Thank you, as ever, for your continued support and readership, for your comments--they are so inspiring and helpful at keeping me motivated to continue this work, you have no idea. As for an update schedule, I'm not quite sure. Things have been . . . wonky over here, so I didn't get near as much writing done as I'd hoped to, though I do have a better idea of where I'm going with this fic than before. I'll certainly try and work my way back up to updating as frequently as before the break, but I'm hesitant to make promises I can't keep. 
> 
> As ever, please check below for additional chapter content warnings/mild spoilers. Please make smart choices, and be safe.

Rey’s classes got back into the full swing a week into her and Ben moving in together, and for the first time, she found herself not having to worry about splitting her time between work and studying, not having to prioritize putting food in her belly, or maintaining the grade point she needed to pursue her Master’s. It was oddly freeing in its simplicity, Rey having given her notice to Plutt as soon as she was able, though the man was hardly able to believe she no longer needed him as much as he now came to understand he needed her labor. "What do you mean you're leaving?" he'd bleated as she'd waved goodbye to the others. "What about all the risks I did to take you in and teach you everything you know? You owe me, girl!" 

Rey's gaze snapped back onto him, and for a moment he actually looked _afraid_. "I owe you nothing," she snarled. "You barely paid me to begin with, citing this great _risk_ you took at hiring someone small enough to fit places your fat arse could never. You were my foster father and you pimped me out to work at your shit-hole of a mechanic shop. You think I owe _you_?" She laughed, and watched as his face began to turn purple. "Consider my debt wiped free that I don't let my _mate_ to come down here and eviscerate your pathetic excuse of a business." 

She watched his eyes light on the mark on her neck, on the remarkably nicer clothes than she'd ever worn before, before he paled. "Fine," he griped, only to save face. "Get out, then. And don't come crawling, sniveling, back to me when it doesn't work out the way you think!" 

Rey sneered, turning on her heel to step out the front door, tapping the sign on the wall above for good luck as she'd done every day since she could jump high enough to reach, not needing to have the last word when she knew it'd only make him lash out all the more at the next poor sod who came in. 

Besides, he didn't know that she'd already given her information to one of Leia's staffers to investigate, and determine just what legal action could be taken against him for all that he'd done, and refused to do, while legally placed as Rey's guardian. 

Without a job to take up all of her time, however, Rey came to understand realized just how many extra waking hours she’d have on her hands. When the novelty wore off, she’d suggested to Ben that she pick up something part time in the student center, something she actually wanted to do even if it didn’t pay well. 

He’d looked at her as though she’d grown a second head. “If you need a way to fill your time you could always come work with Leia and I.” 

She’d mulled over the idea the evening he’d offered it, but if she was being honest the suggestion felt a little too claustrophobic. They already lived together, spent every evening in bed together. She wanted something that was her own. Not that, of course, Ben’s cause wasn’t good; it just felt as though she’d become an extension of what he wanted her to be, not necessarily what she wanted. 

So she attended extracurricular activities and talks, went to extra credit labs to get her hands dirty and sink her fingers into work. Ben’s schedule was odd, anyway, and there were days that she’d come home to a note and a new necklace, or pair of earrings, along with his apology for not being home until much later. While the trinkets were nice, it was nothing in comparison to the fire that ignited her belly when she woke up in the middle of the night to feel him grip her hips, pulling her against the firm planes of his chest and torso, when he slipped into her with a sigh that felt like coming home and kicking her shoes off. 

  
  
  


For the first time since she could remember, and at Ben’s insistence, she went to a doctor’s appointment when she wasn’t sick. It’d always felt like too much of a luxury, though Rose had decried the decision, but now she had a heat to worry about managing. 'Not to mention,’ her brain supplied. ‘An Alpha who’ll want to lock down the house so he can bend you over every surface—.’

Fuck, this was all getting so complicated.

She gave Dr. Kalonia a cliff notes explanation of her presenting, and her and Ben having mated by surprise (at which point the doctor’s eyebrows nearly shot off her face). The Omega-designed IUD, hormone regulators, and an anti-anxiety prescription, which Rey could fill if she thought it would help, were more than she could’ve hoped for. 

“I’m afraid the Intrusive Omega Thoughts, as you’ve coined them, are part of the territory,” she said, resting a hand on Rey’s upper arm, her touch gentle. Kind. “But this should help to at least manage the swings you’ve been experiencing and level them out a little.”

Rey could’ve cried with relief. “Thank you,” she said with a nod of understanding. “I really appreciate it.” 

Dr. Kalonia’s face softened as she stepped to the side of her office to pull out a small box of pills, each contained within its own separate sphere of plastic. She handed it to Rey. “One a day, like with birth control. Try to keep them consistent and taking them with a meal makes all the difference. Now, once you’ve had your first real heat we’ll be able to talk possibly blockers, if you so desire. I can’t recommend starting them until after your first heat, though. It’ll do more harm than good to try and suppress what your body is only now starting to come to terms with.”

Right. Heat. “Is there any way of telling when that’ll be?” Rey asked, flipping the small box over and over in her hands, watching as Kalonia scribbled a few details on her notepad. 

Her doctor’s expression turned sympathetic as she looked back to Rey. “I’m afraid not. It might be sooner, rather than later, once your hormones start to regulate. Or it could take its sweet time. There’s no way of being certain at this point, I wish there was. We’re still learning so much about Omegas and heat cycles though as it is. There’s a few books I can recommend for reading, or listening to on audiobook? And I know of an excellent therapist who works exclusively with Omega clients. She’ll at least give you an avenue to discuss what you’re going through.” 

Another scribble, and this time a small note was handed to Rey with a name: Maz Kanata, PhD. Rey looked at the name in her hands, blinking rapidly as she felt tears well at the corners of her eyes, desperate to keep them from falling. For what felt like the first time, hope bubbled up in her gut. 

“Thank you,” she managed to murmur without her voice breaking. “For everything. All your help. For not thinking I’m crazy.” 

Kalonia’s smile was kind again; Rey could hear it in her voice when she spoke next: “You may want to suggest to your Alpha that he see someone, too. This is a big change for you both, and while it might not be my place to say what he or you both decide to do, couples counseling can work wonders for newly mated pairs. So long as you’re both committed.” 

  
  
  


Two weeks into their time together found her and Ben in his TIE, the latter driving lazily down to the same strip of stores that she’d navigated not that long ago, his fingers intertwined with hers. It was a weekend, and while she was getting the idea that it usually meant Ben spent the time working with his mother on her reelection campaign, today he’d decided to spend it with her. 

She’d be lying if she said it didn’t make her apprehensive. He’d seemed fine to let her wander and figure out her way around the stores before, so what made this time different? 

He squeezed her hand as he looked over at her. “There’s a benefit gala in two weeks that it’s expected we attend. It’ll be the first time we introduce you as my mate, so I thought we might want to get some, ah, details in order.” 

Details? What the hell kind of details were there to get into order? Hadn’t they already come up with a story for his mother, weren’t they running with that? 

When he stopped alongside Tiffany’s, she thought she knew, and she felt her heart start to quicken as her eyes flitted to her noticeably bare fingers. She’d completely forgotten. They’d need this to look real. Planned. It wasn’t unheard of for mated couples to not be married yet, if not a little unorthodox, but not even engaged—. 

_Of course_. How could she have been so stupid to not think about this?

“Hey,” Ben put the car into park as he squeezed her hand, looking over at her. “It’s going to be alright. We don’t have to pick anything out today, just—we’ll just take a look. See what there is. And if you don’t like anything we can find something else. Hell, I’ll go to Jared if that’s what you want.” She’d learned the curve of his lips when he was kidding, and it was near impossible to imagine him in a place that, now, sounded so pedestrian when they were starting at goddamn Tiffany’s. “But, I thought we’d go together and at least get an idea.” 

Rey found herself nodding. Going together would be a lot less daunting, and he’d likely know what would look the most realistic, and not like she was a gold-digger in it for his family’s considerable wealth. She’d made the mistake of Googling that on a break between classes and God she wished she hadn’t. Though she hadn’t seen a prenup as of yet, she could only imagine he was taking his time crafting it. She would’ve. 

He had a lot more to be careful about than she did, after all. She hated to admit it, even to herself, but she had a lot more riding on this working out than he did. Leia had money she could throw away to cover up a scandal if needed be. 

Rey? Well, she had the fifty-grand still socked away now that Finn had moved in to take her spot in the apartment, and college debt was a bitch. They stepped out of the car, Ben getting the door for her and offering her a soft, kind smile that made her chest ache. 

“Hello Mr. Solo, Ms. Johnson.” Rey looked up at the sound of her name, the woman at the door smiling blithely at the pair of them, the door shutting behind them. “I trust you’re both doing well?”

_How in the hell had she known—._

“Very well, thank you. And thank you for fitting us in on such late notice.” Ben's hand spread across her entire back as he led her in. Rey tried not to shiver.

The woman simpered at the praise. “Absolutely sir, happy to help. We've gotten everything set out for your perusal. Can I offer you something to eat or drink?” 

As Ben rattled off a quick request for refreshments, Rey allowed herself a look around. The space was gorgeous, brighter than perhaps any room had reason to be, and the contents in the cases in front of them sparkled like the sun had been imbued in each of their surfaces. Rey clenched Ben's hand tighter, and he brought her hand to his mouth, kissing the back. 

“Just breathe,” he murmured as he led her closer. “Deep breaths.” 

Fuck him and his deep breaths, and his constantly reminding her to do so. She'd breathe when she wanted to, dammit. She didn’t tell him that, of course, though he might’ve felt the way she bristled underneath him if his fingers tightening on her shoulders said anything. 

Though attendants stood just behind the gleaming glass counters, in case either of them wanted to see one of the jewelry pieces up close, Rey wished it was just the two of them. They’d hardly been in there for more than a couple minutes and she was already exhausted from forcing herself to pretend to be excited, perusing the jewelry selection and failing not to fixate on the fact that one of those pieces would have paid her apartment’s rent for a year. 

Previous apartment. Yikes. 

She squeezed Ben’s hand tightly again, when the manager returned back with the champagne he’d requested. Did every fucking store on the strip hold a bottle in reserve in case the Organa-Skywalker-Solo family decided to visit? She took a sip and struggled not to slam the whole drink back at once, the bubbles acrid in her mouth. 

Ben ushered her closer, his eyes flitting from one ring to the next, before finally settling on a design. He motioned for the attendant to take it from the box, and Ben offered it up to her as though it were something he’d gotten out of a quarter-machine. “What about this one?” 

Rey struggled to swallow; the ring was fucking huge. Not content to just be an enormous hunk of precious stone on a platinum band, it had four rings of tiny jewels set around it, the first two rings of baby pink diamonds winking teasingly at her. She’d never get anything done with that on, too busy worrying instead about losing it.

She shook her head, choking on her own surprise when Ben handed it back and asked for the one just beside it to be brought out. If the previous had been gaudy and excessive, this one was terrifying, the diamond in the center practically as big as a marble. She’d get an arm work-out every time she tried to lift it. 

“Too big,” she muttered with another shake of her head, prompting a quiet laugh from one of the associates to their right. 

The man’s cheeks darkened when both Rey and Ben turned to look at him. 

“Sorry,” he said after a moment. “That’s not something we normally hear around here. If I may?” 

The man—Markus, his nametag read—reached into one of the further display cases to pull out a ring with a rose-gold band and single diamond. Rey watched as he took it from the small cushion it’d been set on, and held out his hand to take her own. She let him slide the ring onto her ring finger, and felt Ben grow stiff at her side. 

“This one is clean, classic. Elegant in its simplicity. Not too big.” His smile was warm, friendly, one that Rey easily returned. 

“It’s great,” she said, wetting her lips, hoping that Leia wouldn’t object to it for its simplicity. At least it wouldn’t make her look like she was money hungry, or only with Ben for the rock. 

His grip on her waist tightened, territorial. Possessive. Rey’s head spun with the intensity of the scent wafting off of him that no one else seemed to notice. 

_Alpha is upset. You’ve done something to make him mad. Fix it. Fix it before he leaves you._

She rested her hand with the ring on his chest, her mind struggling to find a way to calm him down that wouldn't involve them getting kicked out of the store. “What do you think, dear?” she simpered as best she could. “How does it look?” 

He didn’t bite, staying mostly silent until they agreed in the end that this was the one and he passed along his ridiculous black credit card, a matching band ordered at a rush for himself. His hand never left her waist, not even as they left the store so the ring could be resized to fit Rey's finger perfectly. She supposed next was a dress for the damn gala, but much to her surprise Ben pulled her back towards the car. 

“What was that about?” He hissed, voice steely in her ear, “letting him put the fucking ring on you? Are you serious?” 

She struggled not to gape. She knew he was jealous, but of that? Was he serious right now? “He was just showing me the ring--how is it different than you doing it?”

“Because I'm your goddamn mate, he's not. It was totally inappropriate for him to do that—.”

“Ben,” Rey said, voice dry as they stopped in front of the TIE, her temper already short. “I blew you this morning and even went so far as to swallow. You think I do that for anyone?” 

That, apparently, wasn't the right thing to say. Even through the tips of his ears were pink, he still fumed as he opened the door of his car for her. 

No. No, she wasn’t getting in, wasn't going to let this be swept under the rug. Her eyes scanned the surrounding stores and shoppers, all passing by without seeing to realize who they were, and for that she was grateful. 

“You know,” she said after a moment, digging her heels in when he looked pointedly at the car, then her. “I'm not getting in there with you when you're this wound up. Maybe I should go back and see Markus—.” She swore the door handle nearly cracked where he held it at the other man’s name. “He's probably just as keen to shoot his load down my throat.”

Ben’s hand grabbed her wrist, the grip punishing, but Rey reveled in it. “Don't you fucking _dare_.” 

Goddamn, if she thought she could smell the possessiveness wafting from him before it was _nothing_ to now. She felt her legs clench with anticipation as slick pooled between them. 

“Don’t I fucking dare _what_ , Ben?” She demanded, angling her body so she stepped into his space, her voice lowering so only he could hear. “He might not be an alpha but I'm sure he could still fill me up.” 

Ben slammed the car door with such force she was surprised the windows didn’t break. She'd have bruises where he gripped her but _fuck_ , it already felt worth it. Wordlessly, he motioned for her to follow him to the nearest multilevel store, the pair making a beeline for the very back, Ben taking a quick, surreptitious look around, before pulling her through the door labeled men’s bathrooms. The anteroom looked more like a hotel foyer than anything, though she wasn’t given time to properly look around before he hauled her through the second door, and into the first stall of the blessedly empty room. 

There was hardly room for her to breathe with him so close, his lips terrorizing her throat, teeth digging at her gland, hands caught between working the button and zipper of his pants and flipping her skirt up. 

“Take your panties off,” he demanded, eyes flicking down to meet hers with a gaze that offered no quarter. It might not have been an Alpha command, but it might as well have been for as quick as Rey was to follow. She’d soaked the cotton entirely through, a wash of shame and surprise tipping her worldview as she slipped them off her legs and offered them to him. 

He groaned mutedly as his cock sprang free, already leaking and so red in color it was practically purple. Rey’s mouth watered; as much as she’d have liked to explain it away as an Omega thing, she couldn’t imagine any world where she knew Ben Organa-Skywalker-Solo’s dick as well as she did now and didn’t get all the more excited about him fucking her. 

In a public bathroom where anyone could walk in. 

He took the panties from her hand, crumpled them up, and shoved them past her lips, her tongue bursting with the salt and musk of her own slick. She stared up at him as he did, scraping her teeth against the pads of his fingers as he removed them from her mouth, delighting in the way he shuddered. 

She may have been two seconds away from a spineless puddle in his arms, but up until that time she’d have teeth, and he’d be wise to remember that. 

“No one fucks you but me,” he demanded, voice thunderous in its intensity and severity. “No one. You’re _my_ mate. _Mine_.” 

His hands spanned her waist, cupped her ass, and hauled her up and into his arms, the head of his cock finding her slit with practiced ease. It hardly took more than a jerk or two of his hips before he’d hilted inside of her, and Rey saw stars burst behind her eyes. 

They grew very still as the door creaked open, and a pair of feet stepped inside. _Beta_ , Rey thought with a sense of relief. There was no way anyone of any other designation wouldn’t smell the pheromones the two were giving off, the slick that now coated the length of him and the insides of her thighs. For a moment, Ben stood absolutely, perfectly still, and Rey barely held back soft whimpers of need as her cunt twitched and tightened around him, desperate for friction. For movement. For him to fuck her as hard as his actions and grip had promised. It was, perhaps, a good thing she had a gag of sorts, because when Ben did start to move, little jerks of his hips that pressed her up against the wall of the bathroom, it was all she could do to try and keep quiet. There was a flush, more steps, and the sound of running water was long enough that Rey felt she could release one soft, small keen of pleasure and longing, before she shut herself up once again and curled her toes to try and regain some semblance of control and restriction. 

Only once the footsteps had receded, and the door swung shut, did Ben pull all the way out, and snap his hips back against her, burying himself to the root within her over and over again. Rey rolled her hips in time, face on fire as she watched his gaze level on her, and his lips spread in a wide, shit eating grin. “You enjoyed that, didn’t you? My little Omega; shouldn’t be surprised you’ve got such an exhibitionist streak, given you’d let me fuck you in the wild after I’d caught you for myself.” 

Able to balance her between the wall and his body, he snaked a hand below the skirt of her dress to rub at her clit, quick, tight circles that he’d mastered that first evening. “You like it when I fuck you like this. When I’m so deep inside of you they’ll never get me out. Can’t knot you this time, baby, but once we get home, and I put that fucking ring on your finger? We’re not leaving the fucking bed until it’s _ruined_.” 

Her head spun at the idea, his words setting a fire to the base of her spine. This felt different than the past couple weeks with him had been; the sex had been great then, but this? This felt transcendent. This felt like _them_ , the aggressive push and pull far more familiar than the subservient and hyper-aware Ben Solo she’d come to find herself mated to. 

This was the Kylo that she’d been introduced to. Was this aggression, this passion and desire, just below the surface, waiting to spring forward when she goaded him just so? 

She wouldn’t be a very good engineer if she didn’t test her hypothesis a couple more times under every condition imaginable. 

Ben had to clap a hand around her mouth to keep her quiet as she came, her body convulsing as he added pressure against her clit, the head of his cock pressing against that soft, hyper-sensitive space just deep enough inside of her she could never reach herself. No sooner had she trembled in his grip, eyes watering as she felt her toes curl and her spine arch so hard it might break, then his spend spilled inside of her as well, coating every inch of her cunt. She felt him tremble as he struggled to keep from pushing the rest of the way inside of her welcoming body. The hand that had been working her clit slid further south to instead wrap around his knot as it inflated, keeping it from popping into her. 

It was a stretch her body wasn’t entirely prepared for, but boneless from her first orgasm, Rey managed to place her hand over his, push it away, and cup his knot in the palm of her hand herself, massaging it gently as his shaking increased. He looked about as lost as she felt as she squeezed, spread the slick that spilled from between them over the rest of his length and massaged it in. She was rewarded with fresh spurts of come spilling into her, with nowhere else to go but to trickle down between her thighs, roll down the curve of her ass and drip onto the floor. 

There was a creak, the door opening preceding two voices: “And so I said to her—. Jesus, _fuck_ it reeks in here! What the _fuck—_ I can’t. We have to go.” 

The door slammed shut, and Rey pressed her forehead to Ben’s shoulder as her body shook with silent laughter. 

  
  
  


Her panties were a lost cause, shoved as an afterthought into her purse. They bought her a fresh pair (“to keep all that come inside you,” Ben had growled) before leaving, Rey not sure she’d ever be able to return without losing herself to a giggling fit. Ben, too, seemed in much higher spirits, and even flashed the previous attendants a winning smile as he accepted the small box from Markus and removed Rey’s engagement ring, slipping it onto her finger with a sense of finality. 

She kissed him with her mouth still tasting like cotton and slick, and he cupped the side of her face to hold her close and devour her whole.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Content Warnings/Mild Spoilers**  
>  Mentions of lack of proper medical care  
> Mentions of child labor and neglect  
> Mentions of birth control and hormone therapy (for Omegas)  
> Panic attack  
> Possessive Alpha behavior  
> Intrusive Omega Thoughts  
> Taunting/Teasing/Goading into action  
> Exhibitionism  
> Dirty talk  
> Gagging with article of clothing/panties
> 
> [Rey's engagement ring](https://www.tiffany.com/engagement/engagement-rings/tiffany-harmony-round-brilliant-engagement-ring-in-18k-rose-gold-GRP10880/)  
> [Rey's dress](https://www.net-a-porter.com/en-us/shop/product/alexander-mcqueen/one-shoulder-eyelet-embellished-ruffled-linen-poplin-gown/1241468)


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey there everyone! Thank you so much for your continued reading of this fic, for your comments--they mean so much and help a ton in motivating me to keep writing. I really appreciate it. I do want to address the comments about how these two idiots need to communicate and actually talk about their feelings and trauma etc.: I see you, I hear you, I agree 110%--there is a . . . tentative plan for them actually using their big kid words and talking it out like adults, we just have to get to that part. I don't want to give much more away than that, but I don't want you to think I don't see your frustrations and completely understand. 
> 
> That being said, it is not this chapter lol but it will happen! I did not set out to involve this much plot in what was supposed to be a quick jaunt of a fic but c'est la vie, my brain doesn't do anything by half measures. 
> 
> Again, thank you so much for reading, commenting, kudo-ing, and bookmarking! I'm completely floored by the reaction to this fic, and hope that you continue to enjoy reading it. 
> 
> Stay safe. Minor spoilers/content warnings in the bottom notes.

Leia, as it turned out, had Rey’s outfit already picked out, and sent within the week for final alterations and decision. It was all Rey could do to take it with a grain of salt and gratitude; at least now she didn’t have to worry about making sure her selection was perfect. Besides, the ring situation was handled, Ben having received his in the mail shortly after her dress having come, and she was feeling like they had it all just about handled. 

Rose had posited the idea of a double date over drinks, needing some time away from thinking about her own course load, and wanting to introduce Finn and Ben to one another. Rey practically vibrated with excitement as she got ready Saturday evening, catching the bemused looks that Ben tossed her every so often from his place on the couch. 

“What?” she finally asked, makeup done, hair half dried, and still in her skivvies with ten minutes to get out the door if they wanted to make it in time. 

He shook his head, standing up and stepping towards her. She let him tip her chin upwards so he could kiss her lips, his own coming away only slightly covered in gloss, which he ran his tongue over. “I just don’t know that I’ve seen you this excited before. Except for maybe when you were talking to Han about his racing career.” 

Rey felt her cheeks flush and shrugged. “I mean. She’s my best friend; they both are. I just . . . want something normal, for a change. Or some semblance of normalcy.” 

She watched the way his brow furrowed a little at her words, and she tried to smooth it over by rubbing his gland lightly with the tips of her fingers. “At least until we get a new normal figured out.” 

The worry lines smoothed, and she smiled as he leaned into her touch. It took her breath away how young he looked, and her chest tightened. They were both caught up in this, both thrown off their course by what had happened between them. It was going to take some hard steering to try and get them into alignment for good. She just hoped to at least be able to keep one hand on the wheel the entire time.

  
  
  


They didn’t quite make it on time, Finn and Rose already both half a margarita in by the time Rey and Ben rounded the corner, but it only made Rose squeal a little louder when they finally laid eyes on them. Rey felt herself all but melt into her hug, burying her face in her neck and smiling, begging herself not to cry. She’d already spent too much time trying to get her eyeliner perfect, it wouldn’t do to end up smearing it all over again. 

“You look so good!” Rose complimented, spinning Rey around with an easy smile, taking her in as Ben stood awkwardly behind the two women, and Finn remained at the table. Rey thought she felt something . . . odd, almost biting in its sharpness, and when she looked back at Ben she found him gazing stoically ahead at Finn, who’d straightened at the table. 

Rose saw it, too, when she pulled away. “You two know one another?” she asked with a small smile, the edges of her lips tight around the edges in a way that Rey knew meant she was trying to lighten the mood. 

“A little,” Finn said with a nod, though it didn’t look quite that way. Ben found Rey’s hand and threaded their fingers through it, clearly seeking comfort as he pressed his wrist to hers and slowed his own breathing down. 

“From some time ago,” he said with a nod, letting Rey lead them to their table, where he pulled the seat opposite Finn out for her. She took it, smiling up at him even as her curiosity spiked. 

“Well, good to know we won’t need any additional introductions; leaves more time for drinking!” Rose grinned as their waitress came around, pad of paper at the ready. 

Rey couldn’t shake the nagging sensation that there was so much more to it than either Finn or Ben wanted to say, the pair of them rarely making eye contact, though the animosity pervaded the space between them. Even a couple shots of tequila and a grande marg in, Rey could feel the way Ben tensed up whenever Finn would look his way. 

By that the the restaurant had filled up, and though neither Rose or Rey had planned on it when they’d set the destination for the evening, after a shared look between them they’d decided dancing was in order. They weren’t too far away from their old stomping grounds, the club where Rey’d been first introduced to jaeger bombs and Rose had drank an entire frat under the table, and really . . . Rey wasn’t terribly concerned about the brunch they had planned the next morning with Ben and his family. What else was hair of the dog for? 

Finn had looked away as Ben picked up the tab for the table, and Rey pretended not to notice, shoving down the sting she felt at his reaction and rejection, thus far, of her mate. They’d get to the bottom of it eventually. Now she just wanted to enjoy what time they had. 

  
  
  


Rey was properly buzzed by the time they were carded and allowed into the club, Ben’s fingers wrapped tightly in hers as they weaved their way through the crowds. Scents, sounds, fluttering lights and heavy heartbeats made Rey’s head spin all the faster. She’d never been able to pick up on so many different smells before, and as they stopped feet away from the bar she had to grab a hold of Rose to keep herself steady. 

She could feel Ben’s concern as he lurched forward to catch her, and in the corner of her eye she saw Finn lean in as well, as though to come between them. Not a good idea; Beta though Finn may have been, it was enough for her to hear Ben’s snarl just behind her. 

“Hey, I’m fine,” she assured Ben with a wide smile as Rose took a half step back at the sound. “Just got a little overwhelmed and tripped. I’m fine.” She ran her hands down the front of his chest, her eyes finding his, tugging his chin gently down when he looked past her to Finn. He practically vibrated with animosity. Normally she’d have thought him too buttoned up to so much as consider getting into an altercation in a public place, but he’d been on edge for so long that perhaps she shouldn’t have been surprised. 

“Alpha,” she breathed, trying to remember what the doctor had told her, what Leia had said, about soothing, about being a balm when they needed to ground themselves. She could feel herself becoming untethered the longer she let him go without comfort, and when he finally looked down at her at the mention of his designation, relief pooled in her stomach. 

“Sorry,” he murmured, leaning down to kiss her, lingering perhaps a moment longer than was strictly necessary, sucking on Rey’s bottom lip until she whimpered. “I’ll go get drinks. Yeah?” 

That made sense, behemoth of a man that he was, but he was gone before she could say anything else. She watched him disappear before turning back to Rose and Finn and offering a small smile. “He’s gonna be right back. Drinks. Do you guys want to go try and find a seat or wait here for him?” 

Finn’s eyes tracked where Ben had gone, and stepped closer before Rose could answer, her hand resting on his shoulder. “It’s not any of my business, but how did you end up mated to Solo?” 

Rey saw Rose’s hand flex slightly where she held his shoulder. “Babe, this isn’t really the time or place—.” 

“I just. I need to know. He didn’t force you into anything, did he?” 

Why was he the second one to ask that? Sure their meeting had been . . . _unconventional_ , to say the least, but he was the second to bring up the idea. She’d thought at first it’d just been Leia’s worry about Alphas and Omegas, but she’d known Finn long enough to know that if he was asking there was a deeper reasoning behind it. One that brought the taste of bile to her lips. 

“No, he didn’t,” she said, watching his expression to see if it changed. It only grew steely. 

“Rey, if you’re protecting him because you’ve been mated—there’s ways to get away from that. You are a Beta, anyway, are you sure he didn’t do something to—.” 

“To make me an Omega?” she asked with a bark like laugh. “Finn. I love you, I do, but I'm pretty sure it's impossible. I’ve been looked over by a doctor already and it’s just—well. You know where I grew up." She swallowed thickly, remembering scarce meals that weren't exactly bursting with necessary proteins and complex carbs, let alone vitamins. "Is it really a surprise I just didn’t present fully?” 

Rose took Finn’s hand. “Let it go, babe,” she said, just loud enough for Rey to make out. “Just—they’re happy. You'd see it if you opened your eyes.” 

“She needs to know,” Finn insisted, looking at Rose with a scowl, before turning his attention back to Rey. 

She wasn’t sure she wanted to, her Omega screaming that this was bad, this was a _bad idea_ , she was going to displease her Alpha and he was going to leave like everyone else and she’d be alone—. 

“Rey!” 

Her head whipped around, eyes finding Ben’s immediately as he motioned her over. She’d already taken a couple of steps towards him when Finn took hold of her arm, exerting just enough strength to stop her from moving any further. “He’s not a paragon of goodness. Ask him about the First Order, then do yourself a favor and pawn off the ring he gave you and get out before you get hurt, too.” 

Rey’s head spun, and Rose yanked Finn back just as Rey smelled Ben’s fury from what felt like halfway across the galaxy. 

“Finn—you don’t see the way he interacts with her—.” 

“I’ve seen the way he’s interacted with plenty other women, I can’t believe you’re being so fucking docile about this and just okay with it!” 

“Don't you dare think that I don't care. I trust Rey to make up her own goddamn mind and to know that if she’s in danger, she can trust us to get help—.” 

It was all she could do to take a couple more steps back, away from the bickering couple, her mouth filled with what felt like gauze, the buzz that she’d been riding high on disappearing as their voices grew quieter and more angry. 

_Alpha needs you, go to him. Alpha is upset. Need to see Alpha._

But was that really her safest option? 

Her feet made the decision for her, already weaving in and out between bodies before she came to find herself enveloped in Ben’s arms, his mouth pressed to the top of her head. “Are you alright?” he asked, worry drenching every syllable. She could feel the heat of his gaze as he looked her over, as though checking to make sure she wasn’t bruised or injured, less than intact in any physical sort of way, and though she was reeling from Finn’s accusation, she couldn’t deny it warred with the man who held her so carefully in his grip right now. She nodded, accepting the kiss he pressed to her lips. 

“Do you want to get out of here?” he asked, the pair of them jostled ever so slightly by another couple trying to pony up to the bar. 

“You just got drinks,” she said with a frown. 

He shot her a look as if to say _so_? “We can go if you want to.” 

She shook her head. “No. I want to stay.” Even if her head was reeling and her stomach still felt like it was in free fall, even if she was trying to piece together what the First Order could’ve been, and how Finn would’ve known Ben was a part of whatever it was, she didn’t want to end the night like this. 

He took their drinks from the bar, Rey more than a little pleased he remembered she liked cosmos with extra lemon, before they moved to bring the others their offerings. Rose smiled warmly, making up for Finns rather icy dip of his head, before the four of them moved out towards the floor. 

Even with her head full of Finn’s warning, Rey couldn't help but find herself gravitating towards Ben all the same. The hand he rested on her back was warm and familiar, which might have been disconcerting if she wasn't already intimately aware of how easily his body folded around hers. She smiled, closing her eyes and breathing in the scent of him as they wound their way closer and closer to the DJ’s speakers, speaking impossible as the dull thudding of the bass echoed in Rey’s chest. Her hips swayed to the beat, and he naturally followed, as though pulled by an invisible thread, doubtlessly helped along by how often they’d coordinated movements before. It was too easy to lean her head back against his chest and accept the kiss he pressed to her lips, grinding her ass against him and tracing her tongue over his bottom lip to lap up every last drop of whiskey. 

When she pulled away for want of breath, her lungs feeling equally empty and too heavy with oxygen at the same time, she nearly went limp in his grip as he mouthed and sucked at her gland; they may as well have been fucking in front of everyone else. Not that anyone was really paying attention to care. 

Rose and Finn had turned away, the two moving together, Rose’s arms wrapped around Finn’s neck as her face lit up with a smile that made Rey’s chest ache with happiness for her friend. Would she have ever found that, if she’d kept thinking that she was a Beta, kept living the lie her biology hadn’t been all that eager to unfold for her? Could she have ever been that happy, knowing now what she’d suspected since she could remember cognizant thought, that there had always been something wrong with her?

Why else would everyone— _just about everyone,_ she forced herself to remember, thinking about Rose—have left without a reason?

She felt Ben grumble against her skin, pulling away from her gland as he huffed softly in her hair. “What’s wrong?” 

It was the vodka, she thought, making her tongue loose as she turned to look at her mate and swallowed the thickness that’d seized up her throat. “I’m just—I’m just glad you found me. Ben. For whatever it’s worth. I’m glad to have you.” 

She watched his expression grow puzzled, his eyes flickering to where hers had once rested on Rose and Finn, and he’d just opened his mouth to comment when Rey leaned up on her toes and silenced him with her lips against his mouth. She didn’t want to talk about it any more, didn’t want to think about it. They came out to dance, to have a good time, and dammit that was what she was going to do. 

  
  
  


The next morning's throbbing headache and dry mouth, the rot-gut and Ben’s muttered “oh fuck me we’re late—.” Maybe wasn’t as worth it as she’d hoped. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Spoilers for Chapter/Content Warnings:**  
>  Intrusive Omega Thoughts  
> Minor Possessive Alpha Behavior  
> Discussions/Mentions of negative behavior towards women from one character  
> Mentions of alcohol  
> Mentions of drinking excessively (in past)
> 
> [Rey's Dress](https://www.saksfifthavenue.com/oscar-de-la-renta-off-the-shoulder-floral-day-dress/product/0400012179989?FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374306644151&R=191595968315&P_name=Oscar+de+la+Renta&N=306644151&bmUID=naAnCr6)


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy crow, guys; I am absolutely floored by your comments and that this story has accumulated over 500 of them. Thank you. From the very bottom of my heart, thank you. I am so grateful to have your readership, and your kudos, bookmarks, comments, and reads all help inspire me to keep writing. 
> 
> I hope you're all staying safe and well! As ever, content warnings and spoilers are at the bottom; please read if you are anxious of the material being too much. Your mental health is of the utmost importance, and please let me know if there's something I should tag that I have not yet! 
> 
> Thanks again!

“So, what did you two get up to last night?” Han asked, hiding his smirk as he pressed his coffee to his lips, eyes bright as Rey struggled not to flush in embarrassment. Ben ran a hand over the back of his neck. 

“We met a couple of Rey's friends for drinks.”

“Uh huh. Sure. Which is why she's more spotted than a leopard with hives—.”

“Han,” Leia hissed, eyes narrowed as she looked over at him, smacking him on his upper arm. “Don’t be crude. We’re in public, and they are adults. What they get up to is hardly your, or my, business.” She shot the pair of them a meaningful look, as though to tack on a mostly at the very end. 

Han hardly looked cowed, smirking slyly when his wife looked away. “I’m just glad to see you two made up after whatever it was you two were getting into before.” 

That was a way of saying it, Rey thought as she allowed herself a flash of a smile before guzzling the remaining half flute of her mimosa. Hair of the Dog it may have been, but it wasn’t easing the throbbing she felt in the base of her skull, as though a practicing marching band had taken up residence. 

“Mrs. Organa?” 

They all looked up at the voice, Rey’s eyes lighting on the young woman standing with a bright smile in front of Leia, her hands clasping a purse that Rey had seen displayed when she’d first gone shopping and had balked once she’d realized it was worth at least a semester’s worth of classes. Now she couldn’t help but notice that it was almost bursting at the seams even as the young woman worked its clasp shut. 

“Kaydel Connix, this is a treat,” Leia said with a soft smile, standing so they could embrace. “You know you can call me Leia.” 

Rey felt Ben’s grip on her hand tighten, before he leaned in to excuse himself to the bathroom. Rey watched him go, brow furrowed as her brain sludged to try and come up with an answer for what was going on, until she noticed that Kaydel had also watched him leave, the slightest of frowns pulling her lips down. Han cleared his throat and motioned for another drink as Leia motioned for Kaydel to take Ben’s now vacant seat, her eyes warm enough to spark a fire. 

Rey took a refill on her drink as well, her request finally bringing Kaydel’s attention full to her. 

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt your morning. I don’t think we’ve been introduced; do you work for Leia, too?” Kaydel’s smile didn’t quite meet her eyes, which were just as calculating at Leia’s had been the first time they’d truly met. 

Rey didn’t bother returning the nicety. “No, I don’t. Engineering is my area of mostly expertise, not politics. I’m Rey, Ben’s mate.” She extended her hand, as was expected, but Kaydel hesitated in taking it. There was no missing the surprise, the way that her eyes flitted over Rey’s (numerous) marks on her neck, lingering on the imprint of teeth over her gland, then over the diamond on her finger. Her grip on Rey’s hand was weak, to say the least, and she released far too early to count it as a handshake. Something inside of Rey snapped at that, sensing weakness. Sensing a potential threat and wanting to squash it before anything could possibly come of it. 

_ Alpha is mine _ .

“Congratulations,” the blonde said with only the slightest of wobbles in her voice, wetting her lips. “Ben, mated? That is a . . . wow.” 

What in the hell was that supposed to mean? Rey just smiled, showing teeth, though she wasn’t sure it translated to her eyes. There wasn’t a nice enough way of asking, so Rey said nothing, watching as Kaydel got to her feet with a feeble excuse for needing to get going, nodding once more at Han, Rey, and waving goodbye to Leia with a promise to see them at the gala. With one last glance back at Rey's, as though unable to believe her eyes, she stepped away and out of their morning. 

Ben came back not moments after she’d left, seeming grateful that their food had arrived just moments before as it gave him something to do in order to avoid the looks Rey was sneaking his way. It wasn’t unusual for him to have a girlfriend, she supposed. In fact it would've been strange that he didn't. Maybe she just found it odd that Kaydel and Leia were still on such good terms. Certainly Rey had her own number of previous flings that she could only hope Ben never ran into. 

No, she thought, what made her throat tighten up was the way that the hope she’d seen kindle in Kaydel’s eyes at having run into Ben and his family here had sputtered out as soon as Rey introduced herself. 

And that Ben, pointedly, was refusing to look at Rey throughout the rest of the meal. 

  
  
  


“How long were you two together, then?” she asked once they’d made it back home and she’d chased two Excedrin with water, followed by her hormone pills. Hopefully that’d help level her out.

He didn’t have to ask who she was talking about. “Four years. Just as mom got elected and I’d started working with her. For her, more like.” She heard him shrug off his jacket and hang it up as she plopped herself, gracelessly, down on the couch, the skirt of her dress rustling as she folded herself to sit cross legged on the couch. 

She groaned when his hands gripped her shoulders and massaged the knots of tension he found there, thumbs digging into her shoulder-blades with all the intensity of a shovel cutting new earth. 

“She used to work for Leia as one of her aid’s, working through law school herself, but mom knew her family as it turned out. So when we started dating . . . Well, you could imagine how excited that made both our families.” 

The ‘but’ hung thick in the air between them. 

“It wouldn’t have worked out, Kaydel and I. I think I got swept up in the—the fact that my mother was actively pleased with something I was doing, and I didn’t realize how unhappy I was until it got to be too much.” 

Rey’s chest tightened as she looked up at him, neck arching until he looked down to meet her gaze. 

“Did you tell your mother that?” 

“No.” 

But he was telling her. Why? 

“Thank you for letting me in,” she said, her voice quiet, even to her ears. She watched as the corners of his eyes pulled closer, crinkling gently, before he leaned down to kiss her slowly. She breathed him in, the angle reminding her of something she’d seen from a movie, but . . . nice all the same. She wasn’t sure if there would be a time he kissed her that she didn’t like. She let out a soft whine when he started to pull away, and wrapped her arms around the back of his neck to keep him in place a little longer, sucking on his bottom lip when he growled. 

“Well, I was going to suggest we nap, but I can think of other, more creative ways to try and get rid of a headache.” 

That was more like it. The Omega inside of her purred, contented, as he stepped around the back of the couch to stop right in front of her, kneeling down between her legs. Her heart jumped when his fingers found her thighs and spread them with practiced familiarity. Rey was blushing even before the scent of her arousal and slick hit the air, wondering if there would ever come a time that she grew used to it, and wasn’t ashamed of it. Was that just part and parcel of the Omega experience, as she'd started to coin it in her head? She'd thought constantly being turned on, once, might have been a good thing when she'd first heard about the sensation in her health classes. 

Now? Well, now it was _her_ , so that made it different, didn't it? 

As though sensing her discomfort, Ben slid her skirt upwards and kissed along her upper thighs, biting, teasing, and licking his way up her soft skin. He sucked slow bruises just over her femoral artery, and when she whimpered at the sensation and felt another gush of slick spill from her, he moaned as though she’d touched him for the first time in months. 

“Fucking love the way you smell, you know that? My good Omega, already so warm and wet for me.” 

She preened, heart jumping as he tucked his hands under her knees and pulled her to the edge of the couch, the angle all the easier for him to pull her panties off. Would her scent come off the couch where her slick pooled beneath her? 

Did she care? 

_ “He's not a paragon of goodness.” _

Ben pressed his lips to her cunt and she swore so loud it echoed in the otherwise still air. Her right hand found his hair, fingers tangling in his stupid, sumptuous locks, and he groaned as she ground her hips upwards, chasing the curl of his tongue and press of his nose to her clit. He let her ride his lips, bucking against him as her first orgasm hit her from nowhere, the press and motions of his tongue against the bundle of nerves, the sight of such a fucking powerful man down on his knees for her, more than explosive enough to bring her to trembling.

_ ”She needs to know.” _

Rey pressed her knee against his shoulder when the stimulation grew to be too much. Ben growled as she worked to push him away, extending her leg as far as it would go and reveling in the heat of his stare. He leaned closer to press his lips to her ankle

“No,” she said, wondering at the power in her own voice that stopped him centimeters before making contact. He turned his head, eyebrows rising as she trembled from holding herself up. 

“No?” There was a dangerous growl to the edge of his voice. Something told her he didn’t hear that very often. 

_ ”He didn’t force you into anything, did he?” _

Rey pressed her chin forward, swallowing against the fear that screamed at her that she was an idiot. “Lay down. On your back, pants off. It’s my turn.” 

She didn’t think he’d do it. She watched the way her order riled at him, bucked against a system he’d come to know and expect and anticipate every second of every day, pressing the uncomfortable buttons of change and powerlessness that she doubted he’d ever had to deal with before. 

He moved back, eyes never leaving hers, as he undid the belt, then zipper, of his pants and slid them down his thighs. His cock was already hard, tenting the taut fabric of his briefs, and Rey felt her body respond with yet another onslaught of slick. She heard Ben’s growl at the smell, his gaze unsure whether to stare at her cunt, or her eyes, darting between the two as if he were afraid of looking away for too long and missing something. 

Rey had to swallow hard to find her voice. “All the way off, Alpha.”

She watched the edges of his lips curl, a smile tempted to find its way onto his face, as he kicked his pants off and set them aside, socks and shoes going with them. When she slid to the floor on her knees, he surged upwards to meet her, hand scrambling to find her hips, shoulders, breasts—. She stopped him with a palm flat against his chest and pushed him back. 

“I said lay down. All the way. Please.” 

The please didn’t soothe him; she could see the restlessness in a tic just below his eye, the way his fingers twitched and clenched, eager to find something to hold on to, wanting it to be her though she wouldn’t let him just yet. She found his belt and, grinning, motioned for him to bring his hands up and above his head. 

“Ben. Please, indulge me.” 

She watched him chew on the inside of his cheek as she leaned over him to bind his wrists around the nearest leg of the glass coffee table, tightening the belt to hold him there. Ideally. Assuming he didn’t decide to bust out, but that was a risk she was willing to take she supposed. 

Content in his security, she crawled her way down his body, feeling her arousal and slick slide down her inner thighs as she leaned in to press a line of kisses down the curve of his cock, eyes trailing up to meet his as she took the tip past her lips. She watches as his face fell apart, his mouth gaping, his brow furrowed enough she thought he might cry if she ever stopped. She took him deeper, groaning as his hips jerked to meet her lips. She gagged, not prepared for his length to be shoved further into her mouth, but the sound made him absolutely keen. She could feel the tension rippling just under his skin, could feel that she was a moment’s distance from him losing it, and for that she leaned even closer to take as much as she could fit inside of her throat.

“Omega,” he rasped, voice like broken glass, jagged and cut, his toes curling as he wriggled to get free and get closer. She silenced him with a look through her lashes, slurping noisily as she bobbed her head on his length. 

He'd already been on edge, his knot already beginning to form at the base of his cock, thick and ruddy in color. She wrapped her hand around what she could fit and squeezed, delighting in the way he absolutely twitched beneath her. 

He stayed bound all the while, even as his panting grew more desperate.

_ ”Do yourself a favor and pawn off the ring he gave you and get out before you get hurt, too.” _

She felt him getting closer to come, recognizing the shortened breath, the way his neck was going red, how his growls deepened further than before. She felt him, and with a wicked grin, pulled up and off, and took off running towards the stairs, the last vestiges of her headache making way for anticipation. 

“Come get me, Alpha.”

She heard the table fall over with a crash before she could see what happened, already booking it up the stairs knowing he'd be not on her heels. Knowing that he'd be up for the chase in a way she couldn't imagine anyone else would be. She didn’t go straight for the bedroom, or even her room, thinking that might be too obvious, and instead stashed herself away in the closet of the furthest guest room on the upper floor. She wrapped her hand around her mouth, hoping that between her heavy breathing and her hormones he wouldn’t be able to find her too quickly. It’d take away some of the fun. 

She’d never played hide and seek as a child, but something told her it wasn’t ever like this. Though muffled by the extra linens and towels hanging up in the closet, she heard him pound up the stairs and veer off towards her room, his heavy footfalls a comfort and far easier to track than when they’d been in the forest. She barely repressed a shiver, hearing him move what must’ve been her desk, or chair, wondering just which rooms he’d take to first. If he started in her room, and made her way to the master bathroom, she could slip by him and get back downstairs, prolong the search and anticipation. Her thighs clenched, desperate for friction between her legs. She’d been so keyed up since they’d kissed on the couch, and now . . . now if she wasn’t careful it was going to consume her and give the game away before they even got started. 

_ ‘Think of anything else. Think of your robotics professor, Threepio. Lecturing. What was it he’d said about automatic pistons—and force—and—.’ _

Nope. No good. She jumped as she heard Ben growl, likely realizing that she wasn’t in her room, and tried to track where his feet were going as they stomped their way down the hall, further away from her. She heard the squeaking of hinges of their bedroom, and figured this was as close to her chance as possible. There were only so many rooms upstairs. Inching along, barely daring to breathe, she crept out and waited to hear the telltale sounds of him moving the bed, rummaging through their things in the closet, before she padded down the stairs as quietly as she could. With two to go, she heard him huff loudly in irritation and clapped a hand over her mouth to muffle her surprised squeak, looking back up the staircase to see his shadow on the wall getting closer. 

Oh no no no—not yet. She made her way down the last few stairs and rounded the corner before he could see anything. Her eyes caught on the overturned coffee table and winced to see that the glass had cracked, but not shattered. That was a bonus at least.Wordlessly, she stepped past the doors of the mid-level before heading towards the basement, mind racing between the TV room (who’d have thought she’d ever live in a place where a TV had its own room?) and his office. 

The latter seemed less likely that he’d realize where she was. No sooner had she wrapped her hand around the stair rail to guide her downstairs when she heard him snarl from above: “Omega, come out come out wherever you are. Do you really want to find out what’ll happen once you’ve made me tear this house apart, after leaving me so cruelly?”

‘Yes!’ her mind supplied unhelpfully as her innermost thoughts shuddered at the idea of having abandoned her Alpha. She heard him inhale, breathing deeply, before he started to make his way back down to the mid-level. Rey nearly choked, hurrying herself downstairs to hide herself away in his office. It was only a matter of time before he found her, she knew that. He knew that, clearly. There were only so many rooms in the house, so many times she could get lucky enough to evade him. 

That didn’t mean she was ready to call it quits just yet. 

She’d never been in his office before, never had a reason to be. He didn’t bring home with him very often, and when he did she was usually able to distract herself with her own class work, or with her attempts to learn how to cook more than ramen and chicken nuggets. It was dimly lit, the only light coming from a small window just to the side of his enormous desk, which was the only space she could think to hide herself in, grateful that the bottom of it touched the floor and would hide her form. Rolling his chair out slightly, she tucked herself into the corner before pulling it back in, practically holding her breath as she heard him stomp his way along the main floor above, the entire house seeming to shiver and shake with his every step, as though the estate was attuned to his every move and mood. 

What she hadn’t considered was that once he was thoroughly finished with the mid-level, his next spot to look would be his office. There was nowhere for her to go as the door opened and the scent of  _ Alpha’s here, Alpha found you, Alpha wants you _ took over. She clenched her thighs tighter and willed her heart to slow down. The central air kicked in, and she heard Ben inhale deeply. 

“I’ll give you until the count of three to come out before I come get you,” he intoned, the floor creaking as he stepped forward, the edge in his voice betraying just how little control he had remaining. 

Maybe if she didn’t say or do anything, he’d think she wasn’t here. 

“One.” 

That sounded like a fair enough assumption, right? 

“Two.” 

Or maybe she was playing this all wrong and rather than pleased at the chase he’d be pissed—.

“Three.” 

Oh fuck oh fuck what if she’d fucked this all up? 

She didn’t hear him step closer, barely kept from shrieking as the desk chair was shoved away from the desk so hard it slammed into the wall, and all she could see was the wide, toothy grin of Ben as he stared down at her. 

“You know there’s nowhere you could run where you could escape me.” 

She gulped, and tried to shimmy away as he reached for her, but the desk didn’t give, and she’d backed herself up into this corner willingly. She tried to slide away, get to the other side, but his grip on her forearm was tight as he yanked her out from under his desk. With a crash everything that was on the surface fell to the ground, and he hauled her up and onto the newly cleaned surface, kissing her so hard she wondered if he was going to suck the soul right from her lips. 

“You. Are such. A tease.” He bit and sucked along her throat, leaving new marks that she knew couldn’t be covered up with any sort of makeup known to man, her body alight with the press of his skin against hers. 

“Thought you liked the chase,” she managed to gasp, hips rocking against where he’d settled against her, her desperation resurfacing with alarming swiftness. 

“Oh, I do little Omega. I do.” 

He pulled the belt keeping her dress together, and shoved it up and over her head, leaving her entirely bare to him save the scrap of lace panties she’d fished out of her drawer that morning. Rey felt her flush heat her all the way from her cheeks to her toes, even as her Omega crowed at the adoration that morphed Ben’s features, the hunger that stared back at her as he took himself in hand, still hard from when she’d teased him, and slid all the way to the hilt within her. 

Rey’s hands found his shoulders, gripping tightly as she howled with pleasure, head tipping back, mouth gaping open as stars popped in her line of vision. There was never anything so perfect as the way he filled her, this she knew to be fact. 

With her eyes closed, she missed that he’d brought his belt with him, and while she was distracted, he’d taken her hands and bound them together just as she had done, looping them now around his neck so she was forced to stay in place. Not that she was going anywhere, not that she wanted to, when her whole world currently revolved around being impaled on his cock. 

“You know how often I thought about bringing you down here and fucking you on my desk while I’m on a boring call?” he demanded, breath hot against the shell of her ear as he pounded into her, stealing the breath from her lungs as she keened and buried her face into his neck. “You know how many times I thought about you being beneath that desk, sucking me off as I worked? Your little cunt pooling slick and desperate to be fucked, even as your mouth was full of me?” 

Fuck! She clenched harder around him as her eyes all but rolled into the back of her head. The tip of his cock pressed perfectly against that overly sensitive patch of nerve endings inside of her, and she was so keyed up already that she could feel her toes curl and her thighs start to tremble. 

“‘M not gonna last,” she gasped against him, his arms holding on to her tightly, lifting her to meet his thrusts when she didn’t move hard enough against him. 

“I’m counting on it. Remember who makes you feel this way.” He tipped her head up so she was forced to look at him, even as her gaze remained unfocused. “I’m your Alpha, little girl. I’ll always find you.” 

She felt her entire body convulse with his words, shaking as her orgasm made her legs lock around him and her cunt tightened all the more, mouth open in a silent scream of need. Ben worked her through it, one hand reaching down to swipe at her clit in quick, small circles that made her grunt, cunt drooling slick down between them, dripping down onto the desk. Good. She hoped it smelled like her when he came down here to work, hoped he was on a call when he noticed the way she’d stained his furniture, a part of her forever a part of his otherwise so calm and collected world. She rocked her hips in time to meet him, feeling tears well in her eyes as he started to slow down, lengthening his thrusts and angling his hips just so he was denying her that same, sweet, pressure that had knocked her over the edge before. She tried correcting the mistake herself, tried adjusting her hips or leaning closer, but he just laughed quietly at her desperation, and shifted to pull out from where her arms had wrapped around his neck. Still bound, they fell between them, and he withdrew with a guttural groan that Rey echoed in the back of her throat. 

Before she could embarrass herself by begging for more, he tugged her off the desk, and bent her over it instead. “Don’t move,” he ordered, and though every instinct in her screamed to behave, she still found herself twitching, trying to angle her head to watch as he lined up with her from behind and slid home once more. She arched her back, but he pressed his hand to the top of her spine. “I said, don’t move.” 

Her hands tightened into tight fists, teeth grinding together as she fought back a sob. His pace picked up almost immediately, the tips of her toes barely able to hold her up as he fucked into her, her thighs pushed together to provide an even tighter fit. 

“You can come as often as you want, but don’t you dare move. You want to run from me? You don’t get to move an inch now, Omega.” 

It was all near too much without any way to distract herself, without a way to get the excess energy out. Her nails bit into the palms of her hand as another orgasm overcame her, a scream ripping from her throat as she struggled to keep from thrashing, bucking against him. 

“That’s it, pretty girl. Keep coming, love feeling you tighten all over me. Gonna fucking fill you  _ up,  _ Rey.” 

She barely kept from jolting as he brought his palm down against her ass, the smack followed quickly by the continued sound of flesh hitting flesh, the wet slide of his cock within her as the base of his cock began to swell, popping in and out of her with every thrust. 

“You’re gonna keep so still for me, aren’t you? Gonna be such a good girl while you take all my come.” He brought a hand between her thighs, circling her clit with military precision that, while may have been a relief any other time, was only torment now. 

“Yes,” she panted, wishing she could look back, wanting to watch him as she felt his body flex over her, holding her pinned in place as his free arm planted on the other side of her and he pressed kisses down the length of her spine. “Yes--please, Alpha. Please please come inside me. Want it. So bad. Please.” 

His fingers circled her clit without any sort of finesse now, and with a low whine, he popped his knot inside of her. His hips pressed hers against the desk, trapping his hand between the wood and her cunt, the added pressure and temptation of yet another orgasm overtaking her as she felt Ben spill into her. 

“Fuck, you’re so good. You’re  _ so good _ , Rey,” he panted, the arm to her side that kept him propped up shaking. “You can move--are you okay? Do you need anything?” 

Rey shook her head, smiling as she turned her head to kiss him, whimpering a little as he hefted her up and into his arms so he could walk them back to sit down in his desk chair, arranging her legs over his gingerly. 

“That . . . was very creative of you,” he said after a moment’s pause, stroking her hair gently, his other arm wrapped around her, pressed gently against where his cock was still buried within her. She hummed, preening under his praise, as she looked up at him. 

“I thought you might appreciate it. The chance to chase me again.” 

He laughed quietly. “You know, we can always go back. To the cabin.” 

Cabin. Right. If that’s what he wanted to call that mansion. She kissed her way across his jaw line. She’d never considered that the area was technically hers as well as his, now, or rather it would be once they were married. 

Her lips turned upwards in a cackle. “Could have our wedding up there. Out in the forest, where it all began.” 

He gave a surprised guffaw, the movement jostling the pair of them so he hissed as her cunt pulled at his knot. “I think mom would kill me. Pretty sure she booked the reception hall the minute that I told her.” 

Wait, what? She felt her body lock up at that, her eyes connecting and searching his. “We haven’t picked a date yet.” 

He gave a small shrug and shake of his head. “No one’s going to tell Leia Organa no.” 

Rey’s jaw snapped shut. Yeah, she supposed that was about right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Content Warnings/Mild Spoilers**  
>  Mentioned previous relationships/previous partners  
> Territorial/Possessive behavior  
> Possessive Omega behavior  
> Intrusive Omega Thoughts  
> Hands bound above head  
> Chasing/Being Chased elements  
> Sexy Hide-And-Go-Seek  
> Dirty Talk  
> Spanking  
> Overstimulation  
> Begging  
> Restricted Movement  
> BDSM elements
> 
> [Rey's dress](https://www.net-a-porter.com/en-us/shop/product/ulla-johnson/yalena-belted-pleated-satin-midi-dress/1255984)
> 
> EDIT: Fixed to have removed continuity error/Rey having mentioned previous one night stands.


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey there everyone! Thanks so much for reading and for your patience for this update; I really appreciate your understanding with how crazy things have been. I'm working on getting a new schedule down, so hopefully we'll be back to at least consistency soon, but. You know. The best laid plans of mice and men. 
> 
> Huge shout out to PoetHrotsvitha for giving this a read over and telling me it doesn't suck; I'd be lost without you. 
> 
> As ever, please check below for any content warnings/mild spoilers. Thank you!

There was no excuse, as far as Rey was concerned, for time sprinting its way towards the gala. It just wasn’t fair when she was so, blessedly, under-prepared. The morning of the event dawning far too bright and chipper to set her already twisted stomach at ease. Certainly the dress Leia had picked out was beautiful, and Rey had mostly gotten used to the ring’s weight on her finger and the flash of rose-gold that matched on Ben’s hand, but putting it all together, and in front of people desperate for her to fuck up? People who would gladly leak any and all information to the press if it meant getting Leia out of office?

_ Yeah. No pressure whatsoever.  _

She’d had her own team of stylists to help her get ready, prepping her skin, nails, plucking and coiling and arranging every last baby hair so that it fit perfectly into the plan for the evening, painting her lips and eyelids until she felt more like an oiled-up canvas than a human. She’d prefer to be the canvas; she’d have more value if she was a piece of artwork, rather than a fallible human being. All flaws would be explained away as intentional, brushstrokes purposefully blending or sticking out as the artist desired, rather than critiqued on whether her etiquette was good enough to match her mate’s. 

“What have you gotten me into?” she asked Ben, when she saw him standing at the kitchen island, a lifetime after he’d first led the stylist team up to her room to help prepare her. They’d now since abandoned ship, disappearing back into their cars to voyage away and watch, with the rest of the world, what made its way to tomorrow’s morning paper. 

He hummed in question before he looked up and over her way, and she watched as his jaw actually dropped. That was only something that happened in romance novels and cartoons, she thought, feeling her cheeks heat up as he openly stared at her. 

“I. _Wow_ , Rey. “ He swallowed, as though working to collect himself for a moment. “You look incredible.”

He didn't look half bad either, she thought, as he stepped away from the counter and towards her. His hands came to rest on her hips as she played with straightening his already perfect tie for something to do other than meet the heated stare he had focused solely on her.

“So do you,* she murmured before he leaned in and kissed her slowly, careful not to apply too much pressure, as if he knew doing so might undo her lipstick. “Were you born to wear a tux or something? Lord.” It was unfair. How was she going to focus on conversation, or retelling the bleached version of their meeting, when he looked like that? When he looked at her like that?

And the dimples as he smiled down at her? Criminal, really. 

“Maybe. I mean, I’m pretty sure as soon as they found out I was a boy, Leia bought a Tom Ford two-piece for my baby photos. Custom made.” 

He laughed as she gawked, pressing another kiss to the corner of her open mouth. “Only joking.” 

Was he, though? 

She was relieved, in a way, that he’d opted not to drive them, as she threaded her fingers through his and let him trace the backs of her knuckles on their drive down. The event had started some twenty minutes or so ago, but as far as Ben seemed to be concerned they were right on time. 

Rey, who did her best to be half an hour early to everything when she could manage it, didn’t feel as at ease as he did. Then again, she supposed maybe he wasn’t as much of a hurry to get there as she thought he would be; it’d be going for most of the evening, the invitation that Rey had chanced a glance at hadn’t denoted an end time, so it could’ve been that he knew something she didn’t about not arriving exactly when the event was supposed to start. 

She only started hyperventilating when she caught sight of the red carpet that’d been rolled out, an actual red runway for her to make an absolute idiot out of herself on. Perfect. Just perfect. Her grip on Ben’s hand tightened, and he squeezed right back. 

“It’s going to be fine. I’ll be here the whole time,” he promised her, voice soft as he pressed his lips to the shell of her ear as they pulled up just in front of the entrance. Ben was closest to the door, which he must’ve known, so when the driver came to open the door for the both of them he was able to shield her from the onslaught of flashes and questions, demands and cries and catcalls for them to look in every direction. If she’d felt at a loss before, the center of attention during her shopping expeditions, that was nothing in comparison to this. This was her worst nightmare, on a two week bender, dressed up in absolute terror. 

“Just breathe,” Ben murmured to her as she clung to him, her nails digging into the front of his suit. 

“Should’ve gotten me a looser dress, then,” she hissed, feeling his body tremble as he laughed quietly. She couldn’t bring herself to laugh it off, or breathe any deeper than the bodice of her dress and the shapewear underneath it would allow her to, forcing herself to smile as Ben wrapped his arm around her waist and guided her down the aisle. He waved, congenial as ever, though the smile never met his eyes either as he stared out into the sea of vultures and offered them what they wanted. 

“SMILE—BENJAMIN, LOOK THIS WAY—REY, MS. JOHNSON. LOOK OVER HERE.” 

_ Fuck _ , how had they found out her maiden name? How did they even know who she was if the whole point of this night was to introduce her? Her palms were sweaty enough that she tried wiping them on the front of her dress, only to stop when she caught sight of the cameras getting it on film. 

“WHAT’RE YOU WEARING? REY—REY WHAT DESIGNER? HAVE YOU EVER WORN COUTURE BEFORE?” 

“ARE YOU TWO EXPECTING?” 

“WHEN’S THE WEDDING? OVER HERE—BEN, WHEN’S THE WEDDING? YOU KNOCK HER UP?” 

“LET’S SEE THE RING—SHOW US THE RING!” 

No. No no no, she wasn’t going to be  _ that  _ girl. There was no way she was going to be roped into showing off a wealth she didn’t deserve, and then get hammered for it. Rey scowled before she could help it, and turned away instead, even as she felt Ben stiffen. In the corner of her eye she watched as he held out his hand, offering it up in front of him to the delight and amusement of the reporters who’d demanded a shot, before he led them away. Rey found herself unclenching her fists, to her surprise, as soon as they’d gotten inside and past the entrance hall. 

They’d no sooner made it past the entrance than Rey felt her chest constrict with a new emotion: fear. Now that the first gambit had been completed, what now? Her eyes lit on the open door just ahead of them at the end of the entrance hall.

Ben, it seemed, didn’t pick up on her fear just yet. “There, done. Won’t have to do that for awhile.” He flashed her a smile before turning to murmur his thanks as he took a program from one of the ushers, as though he hadn’t already likely memorized it, as often as he’d been with Leia in the days leading up to the event. 

“That sucked,” Rey breathed as they stepped away from the entrance. “ _ Christ _ . How do you do that day in and day out? And the questions—how they volley them at you?” She chanced a glance back to the door, at the never-ending sparking of cameras and screaming demands at another couple now making their way through the entrance as well. 

He shrugged, as if he hadn’t thought about it. “Yes, there’s times when it’s a lot, but I just got used to it. Don’t worry, you will, too.” 

“Fat chance,” she muttered under her breath, toes curling in displeasure as Ben started to lead her towards the gala itself. She could hear laughter and the clinking of silverware and plates, glasses clinking against one another, somehow even less reassuring than the photographers at the entrance had been. She offered Ben a coy smile. “We could just not show up, you know. Just, sneak into a broom closet all night. I’m sure they have them here.” 

His eyebrows rose as he led her further inside, even as everything inside of her was rebelling against it, demanding that no, she didn’t go. She didn’t want to, but more than that she was about 100% certain that she couldn’t. His fingers slipped from where they’d been threaded with hers, to her wrist. 

“What’re we going to do in a broom closet all night?” he teased. “You seem to overestimate that I’d be able to do so without getting you all the way out of that dress, and if I do--I’m not going to want to share you at all.” 

She tried to smile even as she felt warmth and heat pool between her thighs. “You say that like it’s a bad thing. Besides, I hear Pokemon Go is still a pretty popular game. Pretty sure we’re far enough in the city to have something major happening—.” 

“Rey, you know we can’t.” 

She swallowed thickly. “But why?” she was whining, feeling sweat bead on the back of her neck at the idea of going in there, where already she could hear Leia’s voice thanking everyone for attending. They were late then. She could see it in the way that Ben looked over his shoulder and chewed on the inside of his cheek. 

“Rey. Please.” 

_ “I just—I don’t think I can do this, Ben.” _

She tried pulling her hand from his, but even as slick as her skin felt, as though it was covered in a sheen of sweat, his grip tightened around her like a vise. He must’ve been able to feel the way her heart rocketed when fingers grip tightened, his brow furrowed heavily. He cast a glance around them, and then stepped off to the far side of the room, as though she were a bratty child who needed a stern talking to. 

Maybe she was, but it didn’t help the panic and anxiety from lancing its way up her every nerve ending.

His voice was near silent when he finally spoke. “Where did this come from? You were on board earlier, if not a little put out because of all the pampering.” His eyes locked onto hers, searching for a reason she couldn’t give him. “Look--I’ve tried to be patient and understanding, and I know this is hard—but Rey  _ we have to do this. _ This is our life now. You don’t understand what it’ll mean if we don’t--.” 

She yanked her hand away, swallowing even as her throat tightened and she felt tears prick the edges of her eyes. “I don’t care. This is  _ your  _ life, not  _ mine _ . I didn’t ask for this—.” 

His laugh was cruel enough to shock her into stillness. “But you got it. Neither of us  _ asked  _ for the other one, but you don’t see me complaining about it every five seconds—. My life was upended, too, Rey!” 

There came a laugh from the other room, and another couple had dallied in the walkway, very clearly paying attention to the heated conversation between herself and Ben. 

She had to get out. Had to get away. The heat was getting unbearable now, and she very nearly tripped as she struggled to walk away from him, not wanting to show him the back of her neck, but very much needing to leave, to feel the cool air on her skin again—.  _ She was too hot _ . Damn this dress, and the effort that’d taken to get into--. 

‘ _ Alpha is upset,  _ you’re  _ upsetting him. You’re ruining everything!’ _

Well he ruined it first, didn’t he?” 

She’d managed to turn on her heel, to keep herself from slipping and crashing to the ground, when--. 

_ “Don’t you dare walk away from me, Omega.”  _

Rey stopped where she stood, body locking up, knees refusing to move as her inner Omega screeched to  _ obey _ . Shocked tears slid down her cheeks when she blinked, watching as he closed the distance between them, the furrow in his brow deeper than she’d ever seen before. He bent over her and inhaled; the closeness of him alone very nearly made her knees go weak, and she hated herself for it. Hated how she acted, hated him for throwing this back in her face—.

  
“God- _ fucking _ -dammit. You’re going into heat.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Content Warnings/Mild Spoilers**  
>  Fish Out of Water-type Feeling  
> Discomfort with change  
> Overstimulation (non-sexual)  
> Anxiety / Panic  
> Intrusive Omega Thoughts  
> Alpha Voice / Restriction of Movement


End file.
